A Boy and His Sensei
by Reignman
Summary: What did Naruto and Jiraiya do on their 3 year trip? This story aims to fill in the mysterious three year period. This story puts a lot of detail into training and filling in gaps of the canon that I think are being created. Revised ch. 1-11.
1. Learning About Yourself

**Chapter One – Learning About Yourself**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

" "- Character talking to another character

Summary: What happened when Naruto and Jiraiya leave on their 3 year training mission? What if Naruto learned more then he could ever imagine about himself and becoming a great ninja? AN: I have not decided on any pairings and Naruto will become strong and intelligent during this trip.

**AN: I do not own Kishimoto's work or characters. I only own the rights to the original characters that I create. **

**AN: Please review the story. It helps me know that you are enjoying it. Also, please discuss any ideas of gaps in the current canon that should have been addressed during the training. **

As Naruto and Jiraiya walked away from the gates of Konohagakure, there was an unusual silence as the two warriors left their birthplace. Naruto was lost in thought trying to grasp what was being asked of him. First, he was going to leave the only home he had ever known for three years. Second, he was going to have grown strong enough to defeat an organization of S-class shinobi known as the Akatsuki. Finally, he was going to grow strong enough to defeat Sasuke and save himself from himself. Each of these tasks could be overwhelming for anyone let alone a thirteen year old boy.

The Toad Sage was likewise in deep thought processing how much his life had changed. First, he found the son of his favorite pupil and one of the greatest ninjas in the history of the Five Elemental Nations, Namikaze Minato. Second, his sensei lost his life to his former best friend. Finally, he realized that the powerful organization Akatsuki threatened the elemental nations; and he had to protect and train one knuckleheaded, unpredictable ninja to thwart that organization's plans.

_So where do we start? Naruto has so much room to improve in that it's almost overwhelming. Currently in regards to ninjutsu, he is effective in summoning Kage Bunshins and he is a fair control on the Rasengan. Moreover in taijutsju, he is more of a brawler then having a refined style or two. With regards to genjutsu, we may be starting in a hole since Naruto's chakra control is so shaky. Finally as a strategist, Naruto's in battle adjustments are phenomenal, but he still lacks enough control to size up his opponents or surroundings. He usually attacks first and just adjusts later, but against the kind of opponents that he will face that will not cut it. _Jiraiya sized up his pupil, and just wondered how much research that he could get done on this trip with this kind of work.

"Naruto, I want you to answer a question for me as honestly as you can." Jirayai said in a serious manner that caught Naruto's attention. "I want you to analyze yourself as a shinobi and tell me what we should work on." Jiraiya said in a serious manner.

Naruto put a hand behind his head and thought about this question. "Well Ero-sennin, I think that my taijutsu is solid, but I am definitely not on the level of someone like Lee. I think that I am horrible at genjutsu. I think that I have a few good jutsus but I could always use some more diversity. "He finished his analysis waiting for his sensei to response.

Jiraiya nodded. "Naruto, I agree with what you said, and it is important for a great shinobi to honestly analyze inwardly to determine your weaknesses. Shinobi who cannot see past their strengths only ignore their weaknesses. Remember that you break a chain at its weakest link, so to improve your weaknesses makes you a stronger shinobi." Naruto nodded as he understood that his sensei was right.

Jiraiya stopped and he found a rock near the path and sat down. He motioned for Naruto to sit down next to him. He wanted Naruto to pay attention to what he was about to explain. "I think that you have learned some great techniques like Rasengan and Kage Bunshins, but we definitely need to work on diversifying your techniques. I think we will need to explore improving your arsenal and also fully developing out all your techniques to the fullest expression. It is not enough to know a bunch of jutsu if you cannot creatively apply it. Your taijutsu is more of a brawler style, and we will need to explore how to refine it, so you can inflict more damage without having to take such a direct beating. In regards to your genjutsu, I am not going to be naïve enough to believe that you will be able to cast them, but we have to make you an expert in detecting and dispelling them."

"However, I want you to know that we must improve you mentally and physically to be able to absorb the training that you will be undergoing." Naruto nodded but he wondered what Jiraiya had in mind for the mental aspect of his training. "

"Do not worry about me. I will do whatever it takes to become the strongest shinobi and make Ojiisan proud of me- count on it!" Naruto flashed that confident smile and used the good guy thumb that he picked up from Gai-sensei.

_Thank Kami that he just picked up that thumbs up pose from Gai. Man, I would shudder to have that goof ball with that green monstrosity of an outfit on. _Jiraiya laughed to himself picturing Naruto in a green spandex outfit with a ridiculous blond bowl haircut.

"Now, I know you have trained in the past, but I want to work on your physical stamina, speed, and strength to support the type of shinobi that I want you to become. Additionally, I know it may seem silly to you, but we have to work on the mental aspects of being a shinobi." Naruto looked quizzically at his sensei not fully appreciating what he was getting at. Jiraiya continued. "Naruto, I am not talking about written tests, but I think we have to work on the mentality and strategies that you employ when you approach opponents and battle. Right now, you kind of rush in first, and just adjust by the skin of your teeth. Normally, you survive a battle because of your superhuman healing ability. If it was not for this, then you would be on the memorial stone in the village."

Naruto's eye twitched, and he yelled, "I have defeated some strong warriors, so I cannot be that big of a dummy!"

Jiraiya realizing that Naruto was taking it the wrong way took a different approach. "Okay, Naruto I will definitely give you that you have hung with some great warriors, but I want you to think back to your battles with Neji, Kiba, and even Sasuke at the valley. In each of those battles, you were down for the count, but the Kyuubi's chakra and healing factor were able to help you overcome those strong opponents. However, when you fight Itachi or Kisame, you will not survive that first onslaught to let the Kyuubi's gifts help you."

Naruto thought about those battles and he had to agree that he had taken quite a pounding in those battles. He flashed back to his battle with Gaara and how he could barely crawl to Gaara before his siblings took him away.

"You see if you could improve your ability to analyze your opponents and strategy and combine that with a better physical presence, then you could take the best features of Shikamaru and Lee. You can incorporate their strengths into your skills, and improve the type of warrior you are. I am not saying we are going to copy those exact techniques, but as warriors they can keep up with anyone by simply being strong in those areas." Jiraiya hoped that these ideas were sinking in.

Naruto could see what Jiraiya was saying because Lee had taken Gaara to his limit and all he could use was his taijutsu. Lee had beaten Sasuke and his Sharingan with simple taijutsu before the Chunin exam. Shikamaru, was able to keep the Oto-nin from catching up with Naruto, Sakura, and Pakuun when they chased Gaara and Sasuke during the invasion. He also was able to beat Temari who knew about his shadow technique but still caught her off guard. For sure, Temari had deadlier techniques with her wind, but Shikamaru was able to use his surroundings to catch her. Naruto remembered how Shikamaru took a moment to sit and think of the strategy during that match.

"Okay Ero-sennin, what do I have to do?" Naruto bellowed to the Sannin. Jiraiya's eye twitched whenever he heard that nickname, and muttered to himself about kids and their lack of respect.

"First, I want to spend the next six months working on both your body and your mind. I am going to put two seals on you. One seal will be a gravity seal, which will evenly make your body feel heavier without the stress that the traditional weights put on your joints. With the Kyuubi's healing factor, you will be able to get adjusted to the strain on your joints. The second seal is a variation of the seal that Orochimaru placed on you during the Chunin exams. Instead of just blocking the Kyuubi's chakra, we are going to restrict your access to most of your chakra. The seal will have a fail safe which allows you or me to remove it without issue if we do run into trouble. The goal of these exercises is to build your natural strength and to reduce your reliance on chakra to create speed. Additionally, when you're low on chakra during a real battle, you will still have to keep fighting. The gravity seal will be set to increase the pressure of the earth's gravity by twenty percent more then normal. Today, before I put the seal on, let us figure out what you can do."

Naruto leapt off the rock next to Toad Sage, and was raring to show how strong he was to Jiraiya. "Naruto, let's see how many push ups, sit ups, pull ups, distance you can run, speed you can sprint at." Jiraiya said with a sadistic smile on his face. For the rest of the afternoon, Jiraiya pushed Naruto's limits and Naruto responded by doing 200 pushups, 500 sit-ups, 200 pull ups, and run 10 miles in a day.

After Naruto recorded this in a journal that Jiraiya had given him to track his progress, Jiraiya then began to work on the seals that he had described to Naruto. Naruto was generally inquisitive about this topic and began to ask Jiraiya some of the fundamentals of sealing, which Jiraiya tried to explain as best he could. Realizing that Naruto would struggle to see the delicate work being done as the seals were being put on his chest, Jiraiya created a clone to demonstrate the sealing elements and explain them. Sealing was an extremely time consuming and difficult subject so Jiraiya's clones took his time, while Jiraiya etched on the seals. After a few hours, Naruto was feeling the effects of the increased gravity, which made him feel like he was about 1.2 times heavier. Also without accessing his chakra, he had to rely on his strength alone, so it added to the difficulty of moving around.

"Naruto, I want you to simply just get used to the seal for the next day or so, while we go into the next part of your training." Jiraiya noticed Naruto's difficulty moving and acclimating himself to the extra resistance. The other part of this training is to learn to focus your mind and build up your awareness. Ever since I have known you, there is no stopping your energy and recklessness, but if you truly want to excel as a ninja, then we must prepare you to focus your mind and retain calm in difficult situations. A shinobi who panics risks not only himself, but he will endanger his teammates and the mission."

Naruto thought back to his battles against Haku, and how Sasuke had to save Naruto when he went into the ice mirrors. His fist clenched at how helpless he had felt when he saw Sasuke standing over him. At the Valley of the End, he remembered how the Kyuubi had to save his life, after he rushed in several times against Sasuke who was able to easily dodge his blows without his Sharingan. He had to improve by improving his focus to handle opponents more efficiently.

"Naruto, please sit down with your legs crossed, and I want you to put your palms over your legs in this manner. Make sure your fingers touch and your palms face upward." Jiraiya sat down in a meditative stance very similar to what is done by monks and priests. Naruto followed his sensei's lead and sat in a meditative stance.

"Now, to meditate requires you to focus your mind by focusing on the power within your spirit. It requires you to slow your breathing to a steady pace, and it requires you to block out the other distractions that plague your mind. You need to fixate on the nature around you. Hear their sounds, feel the wind, and release yourself from the world's issues. In the silence of meditation, you will work through your fears, doubts, and issues, but you must allow your subconscious mind and your inner spirit to guide you. Within every person, they must come to grips with their good and bad sides. The Yin and Yang of the universe over laps us all and both forces are necessary for the greater order to survive. Order and Chaos are both necessary for life and rebirth to continue their cycle. With out a tree dying or a forest fire burning the trees, how would a new sapling grow in a fully grown forest? Without those deaths, where would the young tree find their place in the world? In death, the tree decomposes and fertilizes the young trees allowing them to grow stronger. To understand good, then you must understand evil. To know yourself, you must come to peace with both sides. " Jiraiya himself slowed his speech trying to create a more calming effect for his young pupil.

Naruto began to slow his breathing, and try to relax. He had his doubts about how effective this could be for him, but as he began to relax and breathe; stress and sadness began to lift themselves off his shoulders. He could feel his body remove tension, anger, and sadness which had felt like a physical weight on his shoulders far greater then the gravity seal that was placed on him.

As he withdrew into his mind, he found himself in front of the familiar cage of the Kyuubi. The great fox stared at the interesting kit who stood before as he had some many times recently.

**What do you want kit? What brings you to my "humble" domain?** The great Kitsune growled to Naruto. The boy stood wondering why did his subconscious bring him here, and then Jiraiya's words of advice came back to him saying he would have to work through his fears, doubts, and issues. It was true that there was no greater fear or issue for the young shinobi than the Nine Tailed Demon Fox.

_How do you work through this? How do you reconcile with the greatest force that existed in the world? _Naruto stood worried, but then he remembered that the point of this was to calm his mind and his soul. He had to make peace with the Demon Fox, if he had any hope of coming into his own as a shinobi.

"Kyuubi, I will not insult or make fun of you, as we both share my body. I do not want to fight you nor do I want to embrace your pure blood lust. I want to make peace. Please, tell me how can we find a middle ground?" Naruto said with such sincerity that the Nine Tailed Demon Fox wondered who this person was.

"We both know that if I die that we both die, so it is in both our interest that I live a long life. Also, if we could find a middle ground, maybe this seal would not be so horrible for you. You once told me that this prison looks the way it does because this is how my mind is. Maybe, if we could improve my mind maybe it will not be so bad for you." Naruto looked at the Fox hoping that the Fox would agree.

The Fox looked at the kit with a new found respect and could see the wisdom in what he said. **Fine, what do you need from me?** **What will bring you the peace that you need to improve my living conditions? Tell me what I can do to achieve this 'middle ground' that you wish to seek.**

Naruto realized that he had to make the most the opportunity, and he needed to figure out what would make things better. "I do have some questions that have bothered me. First, why did you attack the village? As a great being with all this power, why would you even bother with our village? Second, what can I do other than let you go free or take over me that would make you calmer and happier? If you could be comfortable, then maybe you could just sleep and relax? Maybe, if I do this, then you could let me access your power while you're sleeping to help just in case. Do you have family? Have you ever felt love? Even if you hate me, in reality, you're a part of me and I must understand you to understand myself.

The great demon pondered the questions carefully for a few minutes. **Kit, what you ask has never been asked of me by a human. I had to take a minute to answer you. I attacked your village not because I wanted to, but I was summoned. When I was summoned, I had very little control of my mind. The man who had summoned me has eyes similar to your supposed friend, Sasuke. Your friend, the one who tried to kill us both, has eyes similar to that vile man. He is a relation to the one that they call, Uchiha Madara. He is the one who summoned me. As to why, I am not sure.**

**Now, as to my personal life, I did have a family. My kits are with their mother in the demon realm waiting for my return. My children will all grow powerful like me, and one day they will be feared as the greatest forces in the world. When we die, I will simply return to the demon realm to join them until Kami calls me to do his will. To answer your questions, I do know love and caring. I talk to my family who call to me in my dreams. We can speak to each other with our thoughts similar to how we talk to each other when you are awake. **

**Without seeing them, I am angry for my fate. I have vengeance to the one who called me for his own purposes. Your weakness has always angered me because I do not know if you will ever be strong enough to get vengeance on the Uchiha.**

**Finally, I hate this sewer that I call home. Release the image of this sewer and give me a forest with green grass, trees, game to hunt, and a river. Allow me the space to roam, and I will bide my time without interfering with you. If you do this, then I will grant you ready access to my chakra. I will warn you though, that you will struggle as you get more then four of my tails, as my spirit will be 40 percent of your power. The more that I become your source of power, then the greater my personality will be in your world. It will take an incredible soul to withstand my presence when I grant you more of my power. Therefore, if you want to find balance, you must learn to control the power of three of my tails. After this level, your mind must be able to balance the urges that come with my personality. Your mind must be ready. Now, grant me my new home.**

Naruto, pondered the story that the Kyuubi told him. He had a family? He loved his family? He was angry for being trapped for something that he did not care to do? Naruto could understand why someone could feel this anger if they were blamed for something that was not in their control. The Uchiha summoned the Fox? Sasuke was related to this Uchiha Madara. He had to talk to Jiraiya about this. _Now, how do I fix this place?_ He began to realize that this prison was his anger and mind. As he released some of his own sadness, anger, and hate. As he began to empathize with the Kyuubi, he could begin to change the mindscape into the world that the Kyuubi requested. The cage melted away, and was replaced with the collar that seemed to be tied to the sky line of the forest. The chain just went into the sky, where the seal still confined him to the limits of this world. As he did this, the Kyuubi was for the first time in thirteen years happy, as he could lie down on soft grass. The Kyuubi was grateful to his jailer, and knew that he would keep his promise to find a balance that would benefit both of them. As he lay down under a large tree with an opening, he looks at Naruto. **I will honor my promise, kit.**

Naruto awoke from his trance, and found that the night sky was coming up. Jiraiya was preparing camp around the area where they had meditated. He was sitting by the fire, and he smiled at his young pupil while holding a cooked rabbit on a stick. "How was your meditation? Did you learn anything? You must have considering you have been meditating for over three hours."

Naruto realized he would have a lot to talk about with the perverted Sannin, but for now he had to eat!


	2. Hide and Go Suppress

**Chapter Two – Hide And Go Suppress**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

" " Character talking to another character

After eating their dinner, Naruto told his sensei about everything that he learned during his time with the Kyuubi. "Ero-sennin, the Kyuubi represents the Yang to my Ying so I realize that if I am truly going to become content with myself that I have to come to accept the Kyuubi. The crazy thing is that I think the fox also agrees with me. For us both to find some relief, we got to learn to accept each other. Did you know the Kyuubi has a family, and that the only reason that he attacked the village was that a man named Uchiha Madara summoned him?"

At hearing the name of the legendary former leader of the Uchiha clan, Jiraiya's eyes widened. He had always wondered how the Kyuubi showed up in the village, but now he learns that a legendary warrior as old as the Shodai Hokage was somehow walking around. "Naruto, are you sure he said that Madara summoned him?"

"Yea, he even said he is a direct relation to Sasuke and that Sasuke's chakra is similar to Madara's chakra. I know that I have heard the name, but I cannot remember where." Naruto scratched his head knowing that he had just come across that name. "Damn, where have I heard of it?"

"How can you not remember? You fought Sasuke on top of the statutes of Madara and the Shodai Hokage at the Valley of the End!" Jiraiya looked wide eyed at his pupil. "He was the former leader of the Uchiha clan!!"

"How the hell is that guy alive?" Naruto eyes bugged out as he realized who it was that summoned the Kyuubi.

"I am not sure, but we should send a messenger back to Tsunade to let her know who we could be dealing with. Also, maybe she can find out if there is anything in the history of our village that could indicate how Madara controls the Kyuubi." Jiraiya pondered as he thought about the key that the Yondaime left in his possession to help unlock the split chakra of Kyuubi.

_Why would he create a seal that had a key to potentially either strengthen or weaken the seal unless he had an idea? _Jiraiya pondered what Namikaze Minato was thinking when he created the seal that he placed on his son. _"What did you know, Minato?"_

Jiraiya summoned a small toad and sent him to deliver the message to Tsunade and have her research the Hokage's library and notes to see if she could discover something that may lend a clue to this potentially dangerous situation to Naruto. _Can he potentially summon the Fox from the seal? Can he make the fox take over Naruto_?

Naruto knew that his sensei was deep in thought, and who could blame him. There was a person who could control a bijuu overpowering its will. What kind of person was this Uchiha Madara? "Ero-sennin, what do we do?"

"Naruto, it is late, so let's get ready to catch some sleep. I will make a few Kage Bunshins to keep watch, while we sleep. We will need it as we start phase two of our mental strengthening." The Toad Sannin created the two shadow clones to keep guard of both Naruto and himself as they went to sleep.

The night went by without incident, and when they awoke, Naruto was ready to go. "Ero-sennin, what are we going to do today? What are we going to learn today?" However, as he started to jump out of bed, the seal affects started to weigh down on him, and with the workout from yesterday, he was definitely sore. "Whoa! This seal is really heavy Ero-sennin!"

_It's amazing you could even walk today after training like you did and increasing your gravity by 20 percent. _Jiraiya thought to himself. "Okay, today is your last chance to just get used to your seal, but tomorrow, we train for real. Today, I want you to practice the meditation, and I want to work through your training schedule for the next few months. Now, the first thing that we have to work on is your basic survival skills. In the past, you have not had to stay outside of the comforts of inns for more then a few days, when you travel. However, we will have to work on your more primal survival skills. We need to make sure that with your kunai, some basic medications, and some other basic tools that you can take care of yourself.

As Naruto nodded, the Toad Sage continued. "Do you know how to find directions? You will have to learn to find your way, to treat basic wounds, set traps for food, and traps to protect against shinobi. I know that you have sometimes passed outside while training, but if you want to survive, then you cannot leave that kind of openings."

Naruto could see the logic of not leaving yourself defenseless. He remember how lucky he was that Haku had not tried to kill him, when he had passed out after practicing that night in the Land of Waves.

"We are going to head to the Land of Waves, since they do not have a huge ninja presence. Also, you are on positive terms with the people there, so people will not bother you. On the way there, we need to discuss things that can help keep you alive during your travels in the future." Jiraiya said as he covered up the last of their encampment.

As they walked to the Land of Waves, Jiraiya taught Naruto to tell time, to determine direction by the position of the sun or where the moss was growing under trees. He also began to teach Naruto the basics of tracking, including suppressing chakra so the enemy would not detect him when tracking. "Naruto, suppressing chakra sometimes is more difficult than calling it out, because after you release it, it unconsciously flows creating the signature that tracker-nin use to find targets. If you want to suppress chakra, then you have to find that flow within yourself; and instead of calling it out, push it deeper within yourself. It will be even harder for you to suppress, since you have large reserves of chakra from the fox. First, I am going to release your seal temporarily on the chakra restriction so your signature is even stronger, which will make you have to work harder to suppress it." After saying this, Jiraiya touched the seal and Naruto could feel his chakra.

"Since, we have good half day worth of travel to the Land of Waves, so how about we do some training? During the morning, we work on your meditation, but after this, then we play a game of hide and go seek till the sun goes down. You have to get to Tazuna's home before I get there and without me catching you first."

Naruto was excited at the prospect of trying to avoid one of the Legendary Sannin. He smiled one of the biggest smiles. "You are on, Ero-sennin. I will avoid you till sundown- Believe It!"

"Well, let us get started. I want you to just meditate today this morning, as we are going to start the physical side tomorrow. After the meditation, we can begin our drill." Jiraiya got into the familiar meditative pose.

Naruto settled into the pose from yesterday. As he slowed his breathing, he felt the warmth of calm returning. He entered the forest where the long leash was flowing from the sky. He found the Kyuubi under the tree sleeping, and decided against waking him, as he wanted to look around his mind further. He walked around the forest and found areas where the forest looked like it had died a long time ago.

_This must be where my mind has put my unhappiness and dark thoughts. If the sewer was my screwed up thoughts, then this must what it represents in this forest._ As Naruto walked through this grim part of the forest, he realized that wind carried messages from his past.

"DIE DEMON BRAT DIE! We must get revenge on the demon that killed my husband! BURN IN HELL!" The words echoed through the forest and in the shadows. Naruto could see memories of his past playing like dancing shadows along the forest floor. His sadness began creeping up to him as did his anger. However, unlike his attempts in childhood to block it out, Naruto allowed himself to witness it. However, he had to try and understand the pain. He had to figure out how to forgive his tormentors. He had to forgive the sinner, but not the sin. If Jiraiya was right that his reckless anger which usually started his bull rushes against enemies, then he had to figure out a way to reduce his anger. He had to learn to let go.

Naruto pondered Jiraiya's words about Yin and Yang. _Ero-sennin had said that in chaos there was a purpose. What was the purpose? Why had they not seen he was just a little boy? Why did he want to protect them? _

As he thought about why he was determined to protect them, he heard his declarations of how he would be Hokage when he fought Kiba; how he screamed to Tazuna that he would be Hokage, and other memories throughout his life. He did not want to be Hokage to protect people, but to prove them wrong, He realized that his reasons to be Hokage was more about proving to the others that he was not a demon. He always had said he was going to show everyone how he would be Hokage. He had yelled it out at the top of his lungs that he would be. It was almost defiantly challenging the village to stop him.

He wondered if he was a bad person for wanting to challenge everyone. No, he had saved Sakura and Iruka-sensei because he cared for them. It dawned on him that when he saved those he loved that he just acted and did not talk about being Hokage or boasting. There was no challenge or desire to showboat, when the chips were down. Naruto focused on those who were hurting his loved ones. As Naruto pondered on this, Haku's words echoed in his mind, and he thought about the quiet ninja who served Momochi Zabuza to the end. He was strong but he did not shout from the roof tops. He thought about the old man Sandaime, and he realized that he was strong. He had taken on Orochimaru and two Hokages and managed to save the village. He did not shout from the roof tops about his power.

Naruto remembered wondering how strong that could he be since he was an old man. _Man, I was so wrong about him! He was one of the strongest shinobi even in his old age, and he took on two Hokages and a Sannin. _

_I have to see that boasting about power is not power, but simply understanding that I have to protect those that are precious to me is the key to my strength. The world will acknowledge you not by what you say, but how you carry yourself._

_How can I forgive those that hate me?_ It dawned on him that to forgive them he had to understand them. _Why do they hate me? They hated me because the Kyuubi killed their loved ones. _How would he feel if he lost Iruka-sensei and the criminal was hiding somewhere? He would be angry and hateful. However, whenever he got angry, he lost control. When he lost control, then the Kyuubi took over. He had been warned that if the Kyuubi took much control that he could hurt someone he loved. If that happened, would he be any different than the villagers who beat him in their uncontrolled rage for what his prisoner did to him?

As he thought these thoughts, Naruto noticed a small sapling under a dead looking tree. He realized that as he healed himself that this forest could be reborn. He was happy as he slowly emerged from his meditation. As he looked up, Jiraiya stood over him with his outstretched hand to help Naruto up.

"Ready brat!" As Naruto nodded, Jiraiya disappeared like a blur. "I am giving you a head start and chance to recover from your meditation. After you eat, you have to avoid me catching you till evening before we arrive at your old buddy Tazuna;s home. As Naruto looked down, there was bread and a ninja ration waiting for him. Naruto realized that he should eat quickly, think of a strategy, and get the game started.

After inhaling the bread and dried ration meat, Naruto looked around the area, and he knew that the Sannin was waiting for him to start. Naruto knew from his days of pulling pranks that it only worked when people could not keep tabs on you. He had to create a diversion.

He immediately called on his favorite jutsu, Kage Bunshin no jutsu. Immediately, the field was filled with several Narutos. They immediately began running in various pathways in the general direction. Jiraiya watched with interest wondering what his little pupil was up to. "Brat, whatever you got planned, I am on to you." With that he began to follow the horde of Narutos.

A few miles into the chase, he noticed that the various Naruto's were disappearing from Jiraiya's sight. _Interesting, he simply used the clones to disperse his chakra and make it harder to focus on which was real one. He must have used it to make it harder for me to lock in on the real Naruto right from the start. The kid is learning._ _He used the clones to create space. _

Jiraiya noticed that he could not feel Naruto's presence. _However, he has not mastered suppression, so all I have to do is make him break that concentration._ "Man, I cannot wait to catch that little idiot, and get him to pay for our stay in the Land ofWaves. It will be just like when we went to get Tsunade." Jiraiya chuckled and spoke loudly in a winded matter to make it like he was loudly complaining. He then felt it. It was not much, but it was all he needed. He threw a kunai in the direction of the flare that he felt, and it caught Naruto off guard. The blond Genin cried out as the kunai whizzed by his head.

"Damn Ero-sennin, you could have killed me!" Naruto yelled as he popped out from the tree. He walked up to the Toad Sage with his head down, and the Sannin had a grin. "Naruto look, you did well to even suppress your chakra for that long on your first try. I have to admit that kage bunshin opening did create some space for you to last this long. It was really quiet brilliant. I am proud of you for using your head." He noticed Naruto's sheepish grin, but something did not seem right.

Naruto realizing that he maybe discovered, he stuck his thumb in the good guy pose. It was then Jiraiya saw it. The clone was carrying an explosive tag in his hand, smiling it said, "Boom!" The tag set off and the Sannin had to jump back to avoid being blown up. "DAMN BRAT! I AM GOING TO PUT YOU IN THE TOAD'S MOUTH FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE."

Jiraiya shot off in hot pursuit of Naruto realizing that the Genin had dispelled his army of clones, but left one with the intention of being caught. He had anticipated Jiraiya expecting to catch Naruto early, so he had allowed this one to get caught. Jiraiya had not recognized the clone, because Naruto's clone flared its chakra, which is what Jiraiya had thought would have happened. This means that Naruto had suppressed his chakra below all of his clones to avoid detection. _"This is definitely not bad kid." _Jiraiya thought as he pumped more chakra into his legs to catch up with the fleeing Naruto.

He noticed that a tree had a broken limb. Jiraiya smiled knowing the kid had probably brushed the branch. He went this way, so I am not too far off. Jiraiya bit his thumb and summoned a small toad. "I want you to go ahead of me, and make sure that there are no traps waiting for me ahead. If there are, then let me know." Jiraiya watched as the tiny frog shot off.

_I will not fall for that trick a second time. _Jiraiya knew that Naruto was infamous for using certain techniques over and over again. It was a flaw that he hoped that over the next three years would go away. He figured Naruto would be putting more explosive tags in their path to slow him down for catching up with him.

Naruto smirked as he was speeding away from the Toad Sage. _I know Ero-sennin has got to be thinking that I am going to get sloppy. It is why I had the clone take a wider angle around me to throw him off. My clone is going to make some mistakes to help confirm his impression. I am almost there, and if I can throw him off one more time; then I should be able to put enough space between me and him before I reach Tazuna's house. _

The toad and the Toad Sage reached the clone around the same time. Naruto had come to a small waterfall area, and was trapped. Naruto had his hands on his knees and they saw that Naruto was bent over and winded. Jiraiya could tell Naruto had run fast and tried hard to avoid being caught, but those mistakes plus the fact that Naruto was not hiding his chakra as well. Now, he was caught in this area where he could not go any further. It was as he said that that he realized that this was not Naruto.

"Damn it! Where is he?" Jiraiya bellowed at the clone who realized that the game was up.

The clone smiled knowing he had done his job, and it immediately 'poofed' out of existence leaving a frustrated Sannin. _I got sloppy, and I expected him to fail, and the kid used that to play me. He stopped here because he had no where else to go, and he knew that I would have to go around losing more precious time. _

_The kid did it again. He never had mastered suppressing his chakra, but instead he gave his clones more then he had. This made it easier for him to suppress his remaining charka. I have to hand it to the kid, as only he could come up with such an unorthodox way to beat a more seasoned opponent. _Jiraiya beamed proudly thinking about his pupil.

Dusk fell and Jiraiya walked up to Tazuna's house, and he realized Naruto was on the steps of the house smiling. "You finally made it! I was worried I would have to go out and search for your old ass!" Naruto started laughing which made the Sannin's eyebrow tick.

"Shut up brati! You got me because I underestimated you and your clones! It will not happen again. However in a real battle, what you did was incredible. To lull your enemy into the false satisfaction, allows you the space to attack and defeat opponents much more skilled then you. You did well. You did real well." Jiraiya said smiling.

_He is definitely going to be interesting one. Minato, he will make you proud. _Jiraiya thought as he went inside to make himself known to Tazuna and his family.


	3. Training Begins

**Chapter Three: Training Begins**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

Italics - Inner Monologues

" "- Character talking to another character

The next morning was spent catching up with old man Tazuna, and Inari who was now older and growing into the family business. "Naruto, man you're growing from such a shrimp into quite the ninja there!"

"Well, you don't look like such an old drunk, so I guess we both are doing better over the years." Naruto smirked to the old man, whose eye twitched when calling him a drunk. They both looked at each other and just laughed.

After having a breakfast and restocking up on their supplies, Jiraiya and his pupil left to the forest surrounding the Land of Waves. The Toad Sage looked at his pupil and explained. "We will spend a few months here and train. I will give you this program, and I expect you to do it every day till you have mastered it. Oh and by the way, you are not using chakra to exercise for the next few months

Jiraiya pulled out a scroll with the schedule.

6 am to 8 am Run 10 miles

8 am to 8:30 am- Rest and Stretch

8:30 to 11 am - Calisthenics

500 Push Ups

500 Sit Ups

200 Squat Thrusts

1000 Jumping Jacks

1000 Calf Raises

Yoga

11 am to 1 pm- Rest and Lunch

1 pm - Meditation, Breathing Exercises

3 pm to 6 pm - Tracking/Trap/Basic Medical Training/Survival Training

6 pm - Dinner

"After dinner, I want you to study the art of seals. It is an art that requires a lot of basic studying. The power of sealing is how it channels the life force, chakra, natural energy, and elemental energy into tools for a shinobi. Many ninja never appreciate this art, but this was the art that controlled the Kyuubi and allowed it to save the village. You should appreciate how powerful seals can be. Seals can be used to help with storage, traps, locks, weapons, defenses, restrict chakra, and many more other tools.

Your opponents have long forgotten this art. Orochimaru has only a basic understanding, and Sasuke is so focused on ninjutsu that this could be an area where you can catch him off guard. Seals are subtle weapons as they can restrain, trap, or kill opponents. Combined with your training in tracking and trapping, this could create an entire element of your fighting style to help you deal with these enemies.

The truth is that most enemies will assume that because of your age and size that you are not to be taken seriously. These are seasoned warriors, so they will assume that you will be easy to defeat. This could be their undoing, as they will be prone to walk into traps. Unlike ninjutsu which pulls chakra or requires hand signs, seals cannot be copied easily if you do not understand the principles of it or the order in which the elements of the seal are placed. This makes it an art that the Sharingan cannot copy during battle."

Naruto was overjoyed to hear that there could be techniques that he could develop against the Sharingan. This was going to be important considering he could be facing Itachi, Sasuke, or Uchiha Madara. He understood that part of his new training was to develop techniques and abilities that nullified the strengths of the Sharingan. The Rasengan was one of his only techniques that the Sharingan could not copy as it required no hand signs, but to defeat warriors of Itachi, Madara, and Sasuke's level, he would need more than one trick.

The remainder of the morning, Naruto followed the program as directed by Jiraiya. His body was on the verge of giving up. Without accessing the chakra of the Kyuubi and the increased gravity, his body was exhausted. Additionally, Jiraiya taught Naruto ancient art of yoga. This art was brought the elemental nations from Buddhist monks who had traveled to other lands far from the elemental nations. Though it was not a traditional training technique of many shinobi, Jiraiya explained that it would benefit Naruto's strength regimen by stretching and keeping him limber which would avoid injury. Additionally, the yoga provided Naruto with flexibility to complement his new strength. Flexibility was an underestimated skill for a shinobi especially male shinobi. However, the ability to move and twist the body would help in evading blows or projectiles from the enemy. Additionally, the training sessions would end with yoga to help calm Naruto before he had his afternoon meditation sessions.

Moreover, his meditation session went extremely well as he began to learn to feel comfortable with the Kyuubi during his session. This session was simple acknowledgement between the Kyuubi and his vessel. Naruto's mental state after this training was amazing. He could honestly feel the calm that had been missing from his spirit. Naruto felt no need to shout and scream to the world, but inwardly he knew that he was going to succeed.

After this first day, Jiraiya would leave during the physical training and meditation sessions to go 'research' as he put it. Naruto would yell at his teacher for being a 'pervert', but Jiraiya did not want to tell Naruto that one of the reasons that he chose to come to the Land of Waves is that its borders were near the Land of Rain and the Village Hidden in the Mist. He wanted to know what was going on there, as he had learned of some suspicious activities. Jiraiya had heard rumors of the civil war in the Land of Rain and Hidden Mist Village.

He had heard rumors of the coup on the Mizukage led by one of the Swordsman of the Mist. What had bothered Jiraiya about that story is that swordsman, Zabuza was a fierce warrior in battle; but at one point, he was even fiercer in his loyalty to his home. _What turned a loyal solider away from their land? Why was the Village Hidden in the Mist caught in the turmoil? Why was there a civil war going on there? _

He had also heard rumors that the Land of Rain, where the legendary Hanzo lived had also fallen into disarray. _Who could challenge Hanzo? He was the man who single handedly defeated all three Sannin in their youth and given them their name. Who could rise up to challenge that kind of force? _

From their training ground, he could reach both regions within hours, so it provided Jiraiya an opportunity to try and learn more about the happenings in these areas. Jiraiya wanted to expand his spy network here, and be prepared if this trouble were to spread or involve Konoha.

Most people did not understand that Jiraiya's spy networks were not just a few spies among the shinobi ranks, but the vast majority would be common people who would be undetected in information gathering. One of the best ways to increase his spy network was to gain the confidence of various bars owners and their staff in various cities. In the debauchery of this realm, many trained ninja would brag or hint about missions or brag about their skill. Once liquor has pried the mouth open, village loyalty is a secondary issue to a drunken ninja. This was why Jiraiya's natural tendency to perversion led to a perfect cover, as people assumed he was getting his fill of his vices. In fact many of these sessions, were covers for information gathering.

This regime continued for three months straight, and Naruto's body grew stronger over time. After each month end, Jiraiya increased the seal by 10 percent of his body weight. After the three months, he was now carrying 1.5 times his body weight around during training. The results were beginning to show, as Naruto went through a growth spurt and picked up 5 inches. He was now standing around 5 ft 8 in. His frame had considerably stronger, and he no longer looked like a runt sized boy. Instead an athletic young man was growing right before Jiraiya's eyes. Also, Jiraiya had increased the repetitions each month, and by the end of the third month he had doubled the original the repetition of the training program. Additionally, by removing himself from the world of noodles and relying on a more protein-based diet from eating wild game; Naruto had bulked up to where his new frame supported around 180 lbs of pure muscle.

However, this was not to say that Naruto had sacrificed flexibility during this process. In fact, he had gained a frightening amount of flexibility due to the yoga training that he had incorporated.

Moreover, his meditations sessions during this time were probably having the most impact on the young shinobi. He carried a greater confidence in himself and was steadier in how he dealt with people. He was more reserved and would take in more from the environment. He enjoyed reading people and situations as it made him more prepared to expect the unexpected. Additionally, the sessions were helping bridge the gap between Naruto and the Kyuubi, though no one would describe the relationship as a paternal bond. The Fox grew to respect his container, and he secretly enjoyed the sessions. The young shinobi during these sessions would learn what the demon world was like, what the Kyuubi's family life was like, what the other great demons were like, what great warriors of the past were like. The Kyuubi enjoyed being able to communicate more freely, and the freedom of his forest. He realized he did not want his vessel to return to the fractured mind prior to the training.

In fact, the sessions were so therapeutic that Naruto's previously decayed parts of the mental mindscape forest were sprouting new growth, and the winds in the forest did not echo the hate filled words of his past. By steadying his mind, Naruto also gained greater awareness of his surrounding, as meditation required one to learn to become attuned the life force flowing through all living things. During their evening sessions, Naruto was able to focus on his lessons with Jiraiya more attentively, and he was able to more clearly retain information.

When Jiraiya would return in the evenings, Naruto learned on one particular area during their evening sessions. Jiraiya would alternate between tracking, trapping, basic medical care, or survival training.

When Jiraiya covered tracking, Jiraiya showed Naruto how to avoid detection by covering his tracks. For example, a shinobi could take a wide tree branch with many leaves, hold it with their free hand, and brush over paths that they were crossing to make them harder to detect by a tracker. Additionally, he explained to Naruto that he should travel along rivers if at all possible. He could stay underwater if he felt a presence or he could henge into a patch of willows or a frog if need be. Also, the water would make it harder for ninja dogs to track their scent since the water would wash away the scent.

"With your incredible reserves, I think you should maintain three to five clones at all times. I think that this way, you could throw off signatures like you did with me, and they could also throw off tracker ninja who would see multiple clues. Additionally, if you do get in trouble, you could substitute with them and get out of a situation safely." Jiraiya explained to his young pupil. Jiraiya realized that Naruto could do what very few shinobi in history could do and maintain three to 5 Kage Bunshins and tap into less than 5 percent of his total chakra reserves.

He also showed Naruto how to sense chakra signatures. Now with his increased awareness of his surrounding and calmer nature, Naruto could get an idea of how many people were in an area and the general direction they were. Jiraiya would create shadow clones and suppress his chakra to various levels, and he would instruct Naruto to detect the presences.

Finally, Jiraiya would also explain ways that shinobi often leave clues of where they are going. "For example, you picked up on some of these techniques when the clone had broken the branches in our first game of hide and go seek. If you place a shadow clone along the trees, then the clone could look for broken branches. Moreover, you need to learn that many ninja often choose this route among the trees to avoid detection, but you cannot just look for the breakage. The clones must feel the broken branches to determine how fresh the breakage was. Since many shinobi use the trees as a path, you cannot simply follow a trail of broken branches; or you could be chasing after the wrong shinobi."

Another day, Jiraiya would show Naruto how to make various traps. Many types of traps that Jiraiya showed Naruto involved simply using rope, ninja wire, a knife to sharpen edges, and natural settings. He could create traps where sharpened pikes could impale a person, pits covered up to trap unsuspecting ninja, or various traps involving setting up spring type releases using tree branches bent back with rope. He would show Naruto how to set up trip wire and even set up a hidden trip wire beneath the first one to fool enemy shinobi to think that they had disabled a trap in an area.

One particular session, Jiraiya was demonstrating to Naruto the way to set up paper bombs to avoid detection and to detonate if a person enters an area. This trap was particularly effective for Naruto who could use clones to lead unsuspecting ninja to these kinds of traps. Normally, the clones would disappear before the trap was set off, but Naruto had not dispelled them in time. He found out that this could take these kinds of traps and make it deadlier. His clones could set off various traps and remain on the ground after being hit, and enemies would be thrown off thinking he had walked into his own trap or a bandit's trap. They would be more vulnerable to the second trap that Naruto could lay around the area where the clones would be. If the trap was a spring type trap that would hurl projectiles, Naruto's clones could disappear as it is being hit. The clones' disappearance and smoke could hide potential projectiles hurtling through the air. The enemy would not see the kunai, shuriken, or knives until it was too late.

Jiraiya also taught Naruto how to make exploding clones to help increase the intensity of traps. The exploding clone would be the initial explosion to set off the chain reaction of explosions. He explained to Naruto the hand signs and how it varied from his normal clone. This was to be practiced when they would do their 'hide and go seek exercise' that Jiraiya would insert into the training program every few weeks. However, unlike their game that they played going to Tazuna's house, Jiraiya would have these exercises last for two or three days. This would allow Naruto if he was selected to hide to practice setting traps, hunting, surviving, and avoid detection. If he was selected to be the seeker, then he could work on his tracking, detection, traps, and survival skills. These lessons would take a few days, to help Naruto to simulate the feeling of doing a solo mission.

Also, Jiraiya would often use a Kage Bunshin powered up with 30 percent of his chakra to handle these training sessions. Since these battles were not using complicated ninjutsu, his clone would be more than enough. He realized that with Naruto's improved attention span and demeanor that he was getting the first part of his training quicker than he expected. He wanted time to take a break and do 'research' as well as formulate the next phases of his training. He would use the 'Hide and Go seek' exercise to take get that needed time to take a break, 'research', or gather information.

"Naruto, I originally thought I was going to focus on this phase for six months, but I think I will incorporate some other types of training." Jiraiya said by a camp fire after their training had ended. Naruto had come back from the traps he set for food, and brought back a baby pig to cook tonight. Naruto wondered what the perverted Sannin was going to change.

"Naruto, I think we will begin work on your taijutsu and kenjutsu. I will only initially add in taijutsu, and after you have gotten effective at it, we can add in kenjutsu. " Jiraiya hoped Naruto would take this adaptation with the same kind of zeal that he done for the first part.

"On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; you will do the current regimen but I will be increasing your seal up to sixty percent and I want you to increase your reps by ten percent. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; we will work on meditation and taijutsu. You will do the taijutsu with the seal on. Sunday, we rest and I would suggest you meditate. You may think that the meditation only helps you become a better shinobi because you are more observant and level headed, but in the future, meditation will be the key for you to tap into another amazing power that will rival the power that the Kyuubi gives you." Jiraiya knew that Naruto would be dying to know what kind of power could rival the Kyuubi.

"Aww, come on Ero-sennin! What power is that strong? Please tell me." Naruto whined to his sensei.

"We will be exploring this power after we have mastered your chakra control and your meditation. To even attempt to access this, you will have to be in control of yourselfyou're your energy. Focus on the tasks at hand, and you will get there soon enough." Jiraiya knew that this was the answer that Naruto wanted, but he could see Naruto accept the challenge.

"Also, tomorrow, we will visit my network in this village. I want you to understand my network of spies, and I want to see what we can learn about Akatsuki, Orochimaru, and what is going on in the area. It is time that you learn the more subtle arts of information gathering." Jiraiya smirked as Naruto would learn other ways to become a man.

It was then the small toad that he had sent to Tsunade returned to the Toad Sage, and reported. "Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade has found some history that may be helpful to you regarding the Uchiha and the Yondaime Hokage."

_What did Tsunade learn in her research? What was the link between the Uchiha and the Yondaime Hokage? _


	4. A truth from the past revealed

**Chapter Four: The Past Reveals Itself**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

" " - Character talking to another character

Summary: What happened when Naruto and Jiraiya leave on their 3 year training mission? What if Naruto learned more then he could ever imagine about himself and becoming a great ninja? AN: I have not decided on any pairings and Naruto will become strong and intelligent during this trip.

**Recap: **Naruto improves tremendously in his training and Jiraiya is going to alter his training to include Taijutsu training. He is about to also teach him about gathering information and his spy network, when the frog that he sent to Tsunade has returned with new information.

**AN: I do not own Kishimoto's work or characters. I only own the rights to the original characters that I create. **

**AN: Please review the story. It helps me know that you are enjoying it. Also, please discuss any ideas of gaps in the current canon that should have been addressed during the training. I appreciate all your words of encouragement. **

"Please go ahead and take a minute to rest, little friend." Jiraiya told the little frog who came to visit them. While the tiny visitor took a minute to rest, Jiraiya created Kage Bunshins and ordered them to insure no one was around. Jiraiya did not want any unwanted company learning about anything that the tiny amphibian may tell them. "You can proceed, when you are ready."

"Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama has found several pieces of information that she wanted me to relay to you. First, she told me that she found notes in the Yondaime Hokage's restricted papers that indicated that he thought the Uchiha clan were plotting against the village. The notes indicate that the Sandaime Hokage was made aware of this and was advising the Yondaime Hokage on how to handle this." The tiny toad paused to allow his human companions time to process this information.

Jiraiya was not surprised. He knew of these whispers of the plot, but what surprised him is that these plans went back as far as the time of the Yondaime Hokage. Everyone was aware of the Uchiha clan's arrogance and strength, but he thought plotting against the village was insanity. In fact, the Uchiha ties were so deep with the village that they had teamed with the Senju clan to found the village, and they were the founding police force for the village. _They were one of the largest clan and had the Sharingan, but how could they have overthrown the village? We are missing something to this story. _

Naruto who was listening to the tale knew he should not say a word, but he should simply listen. However, when he had heard the Uchiha were plotting against the village, Naruto could only look utterly shocked. _The Uchiha were planning to betray the village__?!_ _I wonder if they would kiss Sasuke's ass so much if they had known his clan planned to betray them. _

"Please continue." Jiraiya nodded to his frog friend.

"The Sandaime had noted in his private restricted papers that he had evidence gathered by the Yondaime Hokage and later confirmed by the Sandaime's own investigation that the Kyuubi was summoned by the Uchiha." The frog explained.

_In the history of the village, the legends and common story of the founding of the village did not mention any kind of powers to control the Bijuu. _Jiraiya thought to himself.

"The Uchiha were able to use the Sharingan to cast a jutsu on demons to incite a berserker-like rage, but it was not the normal Sharingan that could cast such a powerful genjutsu. It was the power of the forbidden Mangekyou Sharingan that could cast such a powerful jutsu. Additionally, the Uchiha clan also had delved into dark occult rituals and had learned to call forth powerful demons.

The Yondaime Hokage had found the notes of the Shodai Hokage that indicated that Madara Uchiha's Mangekyou Sharingan was able to drive the demons mad. Therefore, the Yondaime Hokage was suspicious how the Kyuubi appeared against the village. Moreover, the Sandaime Hokage discovered during the investigation of the clan massacre that their shrine had iconic imagery and ritualistic notes in the priest quarters on summoning powerful beings and demons.

What had controlled this power in the past was that the Senju clan had developed techniques to control the Bijuu. The clan had found a crystal that possessed a sedative like quality in the presence of Bijuu chakra. This crystal was placed in the necklace that has passed from the Shodai and Nidaime Hokage to the Godaime Hokage. This type of crystal can be found on the necklace that can be found on Naruto's neck." The toad extended his tiny webbed hand towards Naruto's neck.

Jiraiya and Naruto eyed his necklace that Naruto had won in the bet with Tsunade. _Maybe fate was shining down for Naruto, as this necklace could explain how Naruto was able to reason with the Kyuubi. The necklace's power had calmed the raging spirit of the Kyuubi to the point where Naruto's attempts to make peace had been heard._

_History indicates how Uchiha Madara had this upgraded Sharingan, and it is only slightly suprising that the upgraded Sharingan was able to summon a genjutsu that could enrage a demon. However, the clan was studying on summoning dark forces is something that I had never known. Now, this made it clear how and why the Kyuubi attacked the village. Could this clan be so power hungry that they called the Kyuubi to help destroy the main forces of the village?_ Jiraiya wondered how far a person would go for power.

_This plot must have been planned by the highest levels of the clan, as there were Uchiha shinobi fighting on the front lines. However, the main bulk of their forces were protecting the village. The bulk of the Uchiha were guarding the village while the rest of the shinobi poured out to fight the Kyuubi. The strength of their clan remained in the village, and if the coup were to occur, then it would have been easiest to do after the village ninja forces were decimated. Minato's use of the Shinigami to seal the demon must have foiled their calculation. _

Jiraiya realized this was their plan to destroy the village and take it over. The Kyuubi was not a horrible random act of nature, but a force sent to decimate the village's opposition to an Uchiha takeover.

Naruto sat stunned as he began to understand the implication of the tiny frog's words. The Uchiha may have sent the Kyuubi to destroy the village. His fist clenched thinking of this clan who had been treated as royalty were nothing more than trash who were betraying their comrades. "How do you obtain the Mangekyou Sharingan?"

"Naruto, this is an S ranked secret of our village. The Sharingan is an eye dojutsu that evolves at puberty, if it ever develops in an Uchiha. The Mangekyou Sharingan which is what they called the upgraded Sharingan evolves as a result of the fracturing of the mind with tremendous sadness, guilt, or trauma after the initial sharingan has manifested itself. This is why the quickest way to achieve this form is to kill a person who is extremely close to you like a best friend. This form has incredible powers and abilities, but it comes at the price that the eyes will slowly go blind. Also, the technique does incredible damage to the psyche of the person who acquires it due to the cost of obtaining it. It is a forbidden technique among the Uchiha since it could lead to them killing each other off. People tried to explain this as the reason why Itachi killed off his clan, but I know this is not the case." Jiraiya sighed as he finished explaining to Naruto.

"What do you mean, Ero-sennin?" Naruto's eyes raised at that last statement regarding Itachi, who was largely blamed for destroying the clan in a homicidal rage.

"Itachi was an ANBU Captain and was in direct contact with the Sandaime. The Sandaime trusted him without question. Think about it. How do you think the Sandaime Hokage was able to find all the evidence that the frog mentioned? Also, there is evidence that the Uchiha were trying to investigate Itachi, and this indicates that Itachi was being seen as an outsider to the clan. There is more to Itachi than you even know."

"What are you saying Ero-sennin?" Naruto eyes widened.

"Itachi did not kill his clan in a fit of rage. He was actually sent on a mission to do so. This is a SS-class mission limited to the few of our village elders and the Sandaime Hokage. I only knew of the mission, as Sarutobi-sensei informed me that there was a plan to remove the elder leadership of the Uchiha, and Itachi was the one who volunteered to do this. He knew he could do it quickly without drawing the village into a civil war. If a person was caught from another clan, then this could have torn the village apart in a civil war. In fact, the Third wanted to make sure that if things spiraled out of control that I was to return home to protect the village. This is why I was let in on the mission.

How that assassination mission spilled into full scale genocide was something that no one could not fathom. Itachi was limited to taking out the upper leadership who were suspected of plotting against the village." Jiraiya's showed signs of sadness as he reflected on all the women, children, and elderly people who had died on that horrible night.

"What are you saying? The Sandaime ordered the death of the Uchiha! He could not do something like that!" Naruto was shocked that the Sandaime could be so callous. His grandfather like figure could not have been that cruel.

"It was supposed to be a surgical strike and take out the cancerous elements. Afterwards, we could reveal the plot and state that Itachi was defending the village, after we performed the investigation to uncover the proof. The goal was that he would be exonerated after the proof emerged. Itachi was going to disappear till the heat cleared when the Sandaime cleared him.

Something went wrong that night because the real Itachi had left the village, and Sasuke discovered a person who looked like Itachi. This person must have used a henge to look like Itachi, and he must have used a genjutsu to hurt Sasuke. As to why Sasuke was spared, no one knew. The village was assumed Itachi spared his brother out of remorse.

Itachi knew that he could never return after the horrific murders of everyone in the clan, and what Sasuke saw that night. Itachi may have acquired the Mangekyou Sharingan due to his mission, but it may have come at a terrible price. He was only going to take out a few people who were pulling the strings of this coup attempt. Instead, he lost everything." Jiraiya shook his head thinking of the fate that Itachi had suffered.

Naruto went numb, realizing the feeling of loneliness and hate that was directed at Itachi were misplaced. Itachi shouldered the guilt of killing members of his own clan for the village. His act of heroism was kept secret, and instead he was reviled as a horrific monster. Naruto knew exactly what Itachi's life would be like. He would only have a life filled with sadness and lacking love. It was just like how Naruto felt as a child. "How do you know that Itachi did not betray the village?" Naruto eyed his sensei with great intent.

"Itachi is the person who provides me with information on the movements of the Akatsuki and their purpose. He had told me that there was another Uchiha in Akatsuki who claimed to have powers like Madara. Since Madara lived so long ago, no one would know what he looks like now. However, with what the Fox told us; I believe it has to be him. Itachi has kept up his cover as a missing nin, but he tries his best to avoid killing Konoha ninja. Madara must have assumed that Itachi took out his rage against the elders for holding him back and did not suspect his loyalty to Konoha remained intact. This is probably why he was invited into the Akatsuki in the first place.

I am one of the last threads that Itachi has to our village, and I hope to exonerate him in the village once the threat is dealt with. I have to find a way to prove that he is innocent." Jiraiya put his hand on Naruto's shoulder hoping that he had not overwhelmed him.

"We will help him, Er-sennin." Naruto said firmly.

"The toad's report confirms the fox's account that Madara is alive, and it must have been Madara who was there with Sasuke. Only another Uchiha could have known the strengths and weaknesses of the clan compound without arousing detection. Madara must want to turn Sasuke into a follower and give him the Mangekyou Sharingan. To obtain Mangekyou, you have to kill your closest bond, and he has set Sasuke against Itachi.

Orochimaru's interest in Sasuke must have put a wrench in Madara's plan to claim him. I am sure that he did not forsee Orochimaru giving him the curse mark or Sasuke seeking him out. You see Orochimaru was once a member of the Akatsuki. However, he left them a few years ago. The last contact that the Akatsuki had with Orochimaru was before he fled after trying to take Itachi's body. The Akatsuki's intelligence on Orochimaru is more limited after this point." Jiraiya realized what a devious and convoluted plan this was.

_It makes sense and ties in a lot of missing pieces. This is why Sasuke was spared. The only question is why did Madara turn against his clan? _

"Sensei, what does this mean? How can we use this? Can we save Sasuke with this information?" Naruto wondered.

"Naruto, the truth is that Sasuke will have to believe us if we were to tell him the truth. Moreover, I am not sure that he can be reasoned with as the curse mark is feeding off his need for revenge. It may not be easy to bring him back, even with the truth." Jiraiya knew that this was not what his pupil wanted to hear.

"We need to go to town and see what we can find out about what is going on around here. I will try to think of a game plan while we gather information." Jiraiya looked to his toad summon. "Thank you. You can go home, little friend."

With the Toad Sage's permission, the tiny toad disappeared.


	5. Naruto hits the bar scene!

**Chapter Five - Naruto Hits The Bar Scene**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

"" - Character talking to another character

Summary: What happened when Naruto and Jiraiya leave on their 3 year training mission? What if Naruto learned more then he could ever imagine about himself and becoming a great ninja? AN: I have not decided on any pairings and Naruto will become strong and intelligent during this trip.

**  
Recap: **Naruto learns that Itachi was framed for the massacre of the Uchiha. He had been sent on a surgical strike to wipe out the traitors in the Uchiha planning to over throw the village. Uchiha Madara was the one who had wiped out the rest of the clan and made Sasuke believe it was Itachi.

**AN: I do not own Kishimoto's work or characters. I only own the rights to the original characters that I create. **

**AN: Please review the story. It helps me know that you are enjoying it. Also, please discuss any ideas of gaps in the current canon that should have been addressed during the training. Thank you for reading the story as this is my first fan fiction, so I appreciate repeat readers and the reviews. I appreciate all your words of encouragement. **

**AN: Thank you to Anomie86 who graciously agreed to beta read my story to improve the grammar and spelling. Thank you.**

The next day, Naruto was trekking along with one of the ten strongest shinobi, but his face was captured in anxiety. _We ordered the murder of the Uchiha clan's leaders for betraying the village. Itachi is a hero! Sasuke's life has been a lie! I remember how I felt when Mizuki had told me the truth about the fox. I remember how horrible I felt. If it was not for Iruka Sensei's kind words, then I might have lost all hope._

"Ero-sennin, what do you hope to figure out when we reach the village?" Naruto wondered out loud.

"Naruto, there are weird events happening in Hidden Rain, and the Hidden Mist. Some of the most powerful shinobi have been defeated, and it makes you wonder who could do something like that to people like them. The Seven Swordsman of the Mist and Hanzo of the Rain Village have protected their lands for generations, but there is now chaos indicating that somebody took those guys out. You met one of the Seven Swordsman, Zabuza. He even admitting to try and overthrow the Mizukage, but it does not make sense; since he was one of the most loyal."

Jiraiya continued. "Today, I want you to learn how to gather information without being obvious. This means you need to learn to ask questions, observe people's behavior, gather facts, and learn how to piece things together. Most ninja use jutsu to torture or stealth to sneak up on the enemy. You could be excellent for this role, since your shadow clones allow you to scout and disappear before being spotted. Have you been practicing on sensing with those shadow clones that I told you to send out ahead of us?" Jiraiya had removed the restrictions on chakra to allow Naruto to use his clones in a tracking and recon mission mode.

"Of course, I can still feel them out there, and there is not any feeling of anger or panic. I think that they are doing okay." Naruto replied.

"Let me know what you learned once they dispel after reaching the taverns." Jiraiya sat down to practice his meditation to work on his own training. He needed to work on drawing out his sage mode powers.

A few moments later, Naruto's mind was filled with information as his clones dispelled. "There are only few ninja in this bar from the look at it. There are some mist ninja in there having a drink. "

While barely moving from his position, Jiraiya looked at Naruto. "Okay, I want you to henge your clone using your sexy jutsu, but I want you to make sure the girl is clothed. It will be an obvious give away that it is some henge because no normal girl walks around naked in the middle of town. I want you to send the clone into this bar, and have 'her' strike up conversation with those ninja. Try to ask them what they do. Ask them about their home. Ask them if it is still 'scary' out there where they are from. You can dispel it before you have to deal with awkward feeling if they try to take advantage of you. To make your exit more believable, I would keep encouraging them to drink or have a drinking contest. If you need to get away so they will not know it is a ninja clone, I would suggest pressing here." Jiraiya showed Naruto a few pressure points that would induce the person to pass out.

Naruto nodded knowing it was going to be awkward dealing with drunken ninja. Also, since he would be experiencing this after the clones dispelled, he was not looking forward to this mini mission.

Naruto's female clone walked into the bar wearing a revealing outfit that caught the guy's eyes. However, Naruto toned down the effect with the clothes to reduce the nosebleed reaction. The clone could tell that men were leering at 'her'.

She walked up to the bar next to the Mist ninja. "Hey, how are you guys doing tonight?" She knew that they did a double take after getting a load of her blonde hair, blue eyes, and revealing clothes.

"We are doing much better now, pretty lady." The first ninja next to the female clone said. "Yea, we are doing much better now that you are here." The other ninja said who was further.

"Well thank you guy, but what brings you to our little town?" 'Naruko' battered her eyelashes trying to keep up the pretenses.

"We are on R&R leave from work." The 2nd ninja said.

"Well drink up and have fun tonight. Our town is loads of fun." This fictional flirting was making Naruto uneasy, but he knew that Jiraiya was expecting him to be a strong shinobi.

After the Mist ninja's drank several rounds, they were laughing and bragging about what incredible shinobi they were. Both were fairly new Chuunin, who were enjoying their recent promotions. They were so intoxicated by the beautiful blond paying attention to them and confident in their skills that they had no fear of what they were saying. Naruto asked them to tell 'her' stories of their home and their incredible leader. "I hear that Mist shinobi are some of the strongest ever. Everyone has heard of the Swordsmen, and the former Mizukage who has watched over the country for years is considered unbeatable." 'Naruko' said in the most fan girl like manner that Fem Naruto had seen girls do for Sasuke.

"He _was_ unbeatable." The ninja further from Fem Naruto said. After Fem Naruto wanted to learn more, they started telling their tale. Naruto learned that the old Mizukage was defeated by an incredible warrior. This warrior was a legend for having defeated so many of the Jounin and Chuunin to get to the Mizukage's compound. In the battle that followed, the warrior was able to summon frightening black flames that burned the Mizukage's suiton wall and burned off his right arm in the attack. This warrior did not let up, and he put the old Mizukage into a coma like state after a strange genjutsu was thrown on him. Supposedly, the old Mizukage has not emerged from the coma. After this victory, the warrior declared himself the new Mizukage, and he was able to command the fear and respect of the Hidden Mist Village. The Village had always respected strength, and soon the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist pledged their alliance to this powerful warrior.

The Chuunin went on about how the village had changed. Initially, the Mizukage had seemed interested in strengthening the village. He was a proponent of developing the village's new curriculum in the academy. He overturned the practice of forcing all the Genin to be pitted in a match to the death. He felt that it was a waste of talent. Obviously, Genin could become stronger after coming out of academy, and this initial stage of ranking should not define their careers or end their lives. In fact the Mizukage had used the story of the legendary Jiraiya of the Sannin who was such a dead last in his class. However, he is now considered one of the ten strongest shinobi in the world.

Naruto, hearing these random Mist Ninja talk about Ero-sennin realized how lucky he was to have him as a sensei. _When I report back, I definitely cannot blow up his ego with this bit of the story. _'Naruko' smirked to 'herself'.

"We are soooo glad that the Village had changed the test because we were not that good coming out of the academy." The Mist shinobi closest to 'Naruko' said.

"Well it sounds like that everything is going great. Maybe, I need to visit this village. I am sure you boys would not mind showing me around." 'Naruko' said with a flirtatious wink.

"Well it was going great, but something happened. We do not know what happened, but something changed. The new Mizukage has left us. The Village is trying to figure out who is going to be next." The Ninja were feeling their liquor and they looked at their companion with a leer.

"Who cares about our village. Let us have some fun." The ninja next to 'Naruko' slapped 'her' backside.

"Well, why didn't you not say so?" 'Naruko' grabbed the guy and led him to a private area in the back of the bar away from his friend and leaned in close. When the ninja closed his eyes expecting a kiss, he never saw the pressure point which caused him to pass out. 'Naruko' took this opportunity to disappear.

The meditative stance the real Naruto had taken helped in allowing him to process the female clone's memories. After overcoming his initial weirdness of being hit on by men more than he had ever been when he normally did the jutsu, he began to process the information that he learned. When he did the Sexy Jutsu, the perverts usually passed out fairly quickly. This was the longest he had maintained the henge, so it was definitely weird to hold the character so long.

"Ero-sennin, the clone came back, and she learned a lot." Naruto relayed to the meditating Jiraiya. When Naruto looked over to the perverted Sannin, he realized something looked different. His hair had grown larger, and his face had become distorted. It was almost like he had a reaction. When the legendary shinobi opened his eyes, Naruto saw that his eyes were different. It had taken on a toad-like quality.

"Naruto, this is a form that one day when you are ready that you will learn. It is taught by the great sages of the toads. Trust me kid, when I say this will help you learn to control the Kyuubi's power better. Instead of losing control, you will be able to control all of it. However, we will need to see how far you can go with your control without the Sage training. The Sage training will help take you over the top. This is what I meant by your meditation eventually leading to more power than you could imagine. Even I have not fully mastered it, but even with this level of control, the power is incredible. Now, tell me what you have learned." Jiraiya had this serious look that Naruto understood to be a silent gauntlet being thrown to challenge Naruto. Naruto would succeed in his training, surpass the legendary Jiraiya, and learn this mode that would allow him to control the Kyuubi's power.

"Well, the Mist village's old Mizukage was defeated by a warrior who used black flames that repelled the Mizukage's water wall and even burned off his right arm. After the Mizukage could not use jutsu, the warrior put a genjutsu that put him in a coma." Naruto studied his sensei that seemed to be very attentive when he had heard that the warrior used "black flames".

"Ero-sennin, didn't Itachi use something like that on us, when he got away? He also used a genjutsu on Sasuke to stop him that put him in a coma too. Was Itachi the shinobi that the Chuunin spoke of?" Naruto looked inquisitively.

"No, I don't think it was Itachi. Itachi is extremely skilled, but after fighting an entire village of Jounin, Chuunin, and defeating a Kage himself; this warrior has to be on another level. Remember how he looked as he left after using the flame on the Toad Mouth Bind jutsu, and the genjutsu on Sasuke. Itachi was much drained. I doubt that he could do all that after fighting a strong village like the Hidden Mist. This has to be Uchiha Madara. He has to have taken over as the Mizukage." Jiraiya was very distressed at the thought of someone that powerful with a death wish against Konoha leading a village. _It was enough that Orochimaru was head of the Sound Village, but the Mizukage was Uchiha Madara. _

"Ero-sennin, he isn't there anymore. After making improvements to their academy like ending their training practice of death matches between Genin, he left and disappeared. Now, the village seems to be trying to figure out what is going on." Naruto capped off his story.

_This must why the Civil War is going on. Why did Madara leave? I wonder what caused Zabuza to turn on him. _The Toad Sage wondered.

"Naruto, you did real well." Jiraiya said as his normal features were returning to him. He was practicing his Sage arts to make sure he could still draw on it if he ever needed it. He had not perfected the mode as his facial features distorted whenever he used it. If a person could master it, then it would not change their face so much. However in battle, he would need Ma and Pa to help him retain enough calm to draw on the sage power. To access the sage mode, you have to remain still and focus, which is extremely difficult in the heat of battle. This is why Ma and Pa would be there to help him draw it out. With all that was happening in the five major elemental nations, even the mighty Jiraiya had to improve and keep sharp for the things to come.

"I plan on going to the outskirts of the Rain Village to figure out what is going on there. However, I want you to resume your training tomorrow. Since tomorrow is Tuesday, we start on taijutsu training.

I will be leaving two clones behind to begin your taijutsu training. You will be learning two styles that will complement a taijutsu style that you will learn once you master the meditation and can access the Sage mode. The Sage mode taijutsu involves mimicking the natural strengths of the toads. Toads have strong legs and have to more creatively use their hands as their hands are not large or powerful.

The styles that I will teach you are called Muay Thai and Capoeira. Muay Thai and Capoeira come from distant kingdoms. I had the great fortune of meeting warriors from these regions during my travels outside the village. Muay Thai is a form that utilizes hands, shins, knees, and elbows. The style uses quick punches and utilizes the other parts of the body to turn your whole body into a weapon. In traditional taijutsu, you use your feet and hands. In Muay Thai, use of the elbows, knees, and shins are built into the style giving it a more distinct way to inflict damage on an opponent. For example, if you use your elbows right, then you can bloody an opponent above his eyes causing them to lose vision with the blood flowing over their eye.

You have a great punch, but if we can turn into more a strong jabbing style, this will give you the ability to use more aspects of your body as a weapon. Additionally, by using the other styles, you can keep your hands in a more defensive stance to avoid exposing your head to unnecessary blows from enemies.

Also, the Muay Thai style teaches you to deflect parries either by redirecting or blocking with elements like your shoulder area. You will learn deflection to minimize the damage, protect yourself, and preserve your strength. It is better then traditional boxing or fighting where you are taught to evade or absorb blows. These are strong techniques, but they can wear you down. Deflection will mean you will simply flick of your hand to deflect a punch away from your body. If you hit the right area of the hand at the right speed, you will simple cause the enemy's strong blows to go away from your body.

The other style that I want you to learn is Capoeira. The Capoeira style is very fluid. It is taught with the use of music and beats. The moves have a dance like rhythm, and it will also emphasize the use of the feet, knees, and elbows. In Capoeira, the evasive techniques involve rolls and dodges. However, the art teaches you to go from a defensive position into an offensive technique. For example, you will learn to go from a cartwheel into a kick. You will learn to roll around the opponent, but quickly uncoil to strike behind the opponent.

I know both styles have some differences, but by learning both, I hope to make you learn to emphasize the other parts of your body as weapons. Using both styles defensive techniques will make you learn to avoid taking punishment that you sometimes will take if you fight in traditional taijutsu styles.

Both styles also emphasize the use of feints or fakes to help misdirect an opponent's defense. If you can learn analyze an opponent, and then you can alternate the styles. As you progress, you will find ways to make the moves become second nature, and you will begin to combine the styles.

You will learn both these styles with your chakra restriction seals on as well as your gravity seals on. If we can increase your speed and strength, then both these styles will make you strong enough to take on any of our villages strongest taijutsu styles like the Interceptor style of Uchiha, the Gentle Fist of the Hyuuga, and the Strong Fist of Gai. I am not saying that you will have to fight Lee or Hiashi. However, if you can learn to bring your taijutsu skills to their level; then you will also be feared for your taijutsu skills. Remember, Lee was able to give Sasuke a challenge at the Chuunin exams with his taijutsu."

"Ero-sennin, how will it work against all those styles?" Naruto wondered knowing how feared each style was by many villages.

"First, the Uchiha style is based on anticipation using the Sharingan. With their ability to anticipate, they can respond accordingly. If we can work on your speed and power of faking an opponent out at high speeds, then we can maybe use the anticipation style of the Sharingan against it. At that high a speed, the Sharingan user may fall for the initial attack because their body is trained to anticipate the strike. If we remove the time to adjust, they will instinctively follow the initial attack path to block. This could leave them open to attack when the attack is redirected too quickly for them to adjust.

Second, the Hyuuga style relies on attacking chakra points using their hands with minimal emphasis on the feet. If we can focus your hand work to quick attacks and defensive maneuver like deflection, then you can work on countering their attacks. Also, while blocking their attacks you can possibly use your elbow or feet as weapons to strike back while engaging their hand based attacks. Also, both styles will improve your avoidance by teaching you to swivel your hips, jump back, or roll away. As we progress, you will instinctively be more prepared to deal with their blows with deflection. Also, we could possibly use the Capoeira style to use rolls to possibly turn a defensive position to attacking position. If we can get your speed up, then your style will represent great challenges to them.

Third, Gai's style relies on strength with fist and feet. It also involves lots of aerial moves. However, Capoeira teaches you to avoid blows with low ground work, which will make their high flying moves useless. Additionally, Muay Thai teaches you to use certain parts of your body to block like shoulders, shins, or forearms, and elbows when you cannot avoid contact. These areas are traditionally harder and sharper which could inflict damage on the opponent. Also, there are techniques in the Muay Thai style that will also teach you to utilize preemptive moves to reduce down the effectiveness of this offensive style. For example, if you use quick jabs to slow down the attacker punches or you kick the inside of an enemy's leg to force them to jump back or prevent high flying kicks; then they will have to adjust.

Additionally, your style will give you great striking power with your leg which will also keep your enemy back. Your legs will always be your strongest muscle and it has the greatest reach so focusing attacks from their only increases your attacking power. Also, by learning to block with your hands more often then you will reduce the openings that the enemy can land on you during a battle.

Do you understand that if you can at least stand toe to toe with these great taijutsu styles then you will be able to battle any person? Another reason why I am restricting your chakra is that your clones will not be able to help you build your speed or body strength. Once you have gotten the styles down, you can use the clones to increase your muscle memory of the techniques. After you have learned how to perform the moves, we can see if there ways to manipulate them with chakra to increase effectiveness.

Naruto, if Madara is around and causing all this trouble for villages that he had no issues with, then Kami help Konoha. He hates our village for what he thinks that we have done to him in the past. We have a lot of work to do, so let's get out of here."

With that the two warriors left knowing that the world had gotten a lot more complicated knowing that Uchiha Madara was not just an aging relic. _This_ _legendary shinobi could take on a village by himself. He is over 100 years old and strong enough to take out a Kage and a village full of Jounin and Chunin. What can we do to beat him?_ _Will we be ready? Will Naruto be ready?_ Jiraiya had not voiced his fear out loud to unnecessarily freak out Naruto, but he would wonder for the rest of the night as they went back to camp in the forest.


	6. Naruto unleashes the power of the Tails!

**Chapter Six - Naruto Unleashes the Power of the Tails**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

" "- Character talking to another character

Summary: What happened when Naruto and Jiraiya leave on their 3 year training mission? What if Naruto learned more then he could ever imagine about himself and becoming a great ninja? AN: I have not decided on any pairings and Naruto will become strong and intelligent during this trip.

**Recap:** Naruto learns that Madara had defeated the Mizukage and was responsible for the civil was for the Village Hidden in the Mist. Additionally, his training program is upgraded to include taijutsu styles that will help Naruto eventually develop the Frog Style taijutsu. Naruto is also exposed to the Sage arts as he notices Jiraiya practicing to reach Sage mode.

**AN: I do not own Kishimoto's work or characters. I only own the rights to the original characters that I create. **

**AN: Please review the story. It helps me know that you are enjoying it. Also, please discuss any ideas of gaps in the current canon that should have been addressed during the training. I appreciate all your words of encouragement. **

The next morning, Naruto began his taijutsu training. He was substituting the physical workout portion of his training with taijutsu training as Jiraiya had told him. The two clone Jiraiyas were ready to start the training. One clone acted as the teacher who explained the katas of Muay Thai, and the other clone was used as a sparring partner to allow Naruto to learn the motions of the art.

Initially, the constant need to keep his fist close to his head was very foreign to a brawler like Naruto, who enjoyed being able to beat his opponents with a nice upper cut. However, the clone sensei explained how this often left Naruto open to blows to his head. By keeping his guard up, he reduced the openings.

Additionally, the use of deflections and guiding the punches was extremely foreign. However, Naruto could see how effective it was. It was not about overpowering the fist or blow of the other person, but simply to deflect the energy away from the body. Every hand or fist was still connected to the wrist, so by attacking this joint he could force the fist away from the body.

As they trained, the use of legs strikes to keep the opponent away from coming in close to the body was also very helpful. He had never thought about how his legs being a primary weapon, as he had always associated kicks with dynamic moves like Lee and Gai were famous for. However, Muay Thai used leg strikes like a boxer would use their hands. They would strike the opponent's body from head to toe. Hours of using his legs in such manner only increased the fatigue that Naruto felt from the gravity seals. The clone sensei had Naruto repetitively strike the clone sparring partner from various angles with both legs. This would have him doing the leg strikes aimed at the head, body, and leg areas of the clone sparring partner's body.

Naruto also worked on being able to anticipate blows from his enemies by simply backing up. The Jiraiya clone assaulted Naruto by trying to kick him or punch him, and the Demon Fox container would only be allowed to lean away from the blow while scooting back. The goal of this exercise was to work on Naruto's quick twitch reflexes.

Naruto worked on this program the entire morning, and was glad when lunch finally came around. He sat down with his aching legs. "Man, I did not know my legs could hurt so much after all the training that we have been through."

Jiraiya sensei clone smirked. "Naruto, you have trained your muscles, but this is applying your strength to movements and motions that you have not really focused on. You may know the simple taijutsu from the academy, but that style relies on fist with some kicks thrown in. You have never really focused for such an intense period to continually work on striking with the legs. Additionally, you are working on focused hand based deflections, which is not a traditional method that is used by most shinobi. Your hands are now a defensive tool with an offensive ability to strike a quick blow if the opponent provides you an opening. "

"Sensei, will we work on Capoeira today?" Naruto grimaced at thought of more grueling work learning a new style.

"Naruto, the fact is that you can only learn one style at a time. After a month, then we will train in the other style. By this time, I will allow you the use of chakra, so you can make clones to continue to master the style. The use of the shadow clones will allow you to continue to refine your muscle memory and mastery of the katas. We will be making as many clones as you can make without passing out, when you retain their information. I think that you can make around two hundred clones. With this many clones working on our every other day program in the second month, you will be training for the equivalent of 3,000 days or over 8 years. By the third month, you will alternate styles with your clones training, but hopefully, we will work with the real you to begin to see how you can work both styles elements into one style by the sixth month. After that, you will have one day a week to work through your basics of either style one day every two weeks. The other times, we will continue to work on combining the styles for the remainder of the year. With 9 months of training, you will have mentally trained as if you have been a master for 72 years. You will always be learning new moves and ways to blend the styles. However as soon as you have developed a move or kata, your clones will practice those till it is second nature.

I am hoping nine months of focused taijutsu training will prepare you to learn how to full adapt Toad Style Taijutsu that the Toad Sages will teach when you will learn Sage Mode. The toad style is similar so it should be a fluid transition for you after this training." The Jiraiya clone said as he handed Naruto a ninja ration meal that he had given the sparring clone prepare while they talked.

Naruto and Jiraiya's clone sat, ate, and laughed as they enjoyed lunch. Naruto loved teasing Jiraiya that he would get him Gai's green spandex as a gift for the holidays. As they laughed, Jiraiya could not help but see himself in the young Naruto. He had never been a natural genius like Orochimaru or great chakra control expert like Tsunade. Jiraiya's skills were that he able to adapt in the heat of battle, and he could learn most ninjutsu through hard work and determination. However, this was not to say that he did not have incredible talents himself, as he did have a talent for seals that did shock his team. Since it was considered such a high level skill, most were surprised at how Jiraiya could pick it up so easily. Jiraiya saw that potential in Naruto as a shinobi. He may not be a great seal master, but he would work till he could do whatever was being asked of him. He learned the Rasengan and Summoning the toads with only months of training. The kid fought Jounin-level opponents with simple adjustments or genius moves made in battle. He had freed Kakashi from Zabuza by appearing as a shuriken and took the idiotic move of Kakashi to severely injure Gaara in the forest. Jiraiya loved this boy with all his heart. This was his god-son, even though Naruto did not know it. He was definitely sad that he had not been able to save Naruto from his childhood knowing that Sarutobi-sensei had doomed him to a life of suffering by refusing to let Naruto be adopted by Jiraiya. The greatest shame that Jiraiya dealt with was not being able to defend his godson from those attackers and haters in the village. He prayed Kami would have mercy on his soul, or when he found his student's wife in heaven; he could look her in the eye and explain why Naruto was left to the horrible fate that he suffered as a child. He could not replace Naruto's past, but he would work to insure that Naruto would be able to achieve his dream. He would be the greatest Hokage and by sheer force of will, he would make the world acknowledge him. This could be the only gift that Jiraiya could leave Naruto to make up for failing him as a child. With that final thought, Jiraiya's clone snapped out of their lunch time break to continue his mission to Naruto.

"Naruto, I believe that your meditation has been great, as I can see the improved concentration and calm. Now, I want us to work to apply this calm to draw on the Kyuubi's chakra. Before this point, the seal fed the chakra to you in life threatening situations, or the Kyuubi could leak out during periods of emotional distress. We cannot have this be the only ways to draw out the Kyuubi, because a shinobi who loses his calm is primed to be ambushed or trapped. When you are angry or emotional, you cannot be an effective shinobi. I want you to try to feel for the Kyuubi's chakra. I want you to draw it out. Use your breathing to concentrate, and I want you to seek it out."

Naruto felt for the red chakra that he had often tapped into over the past few months. When he mentally called to the Kyuubi, the Kyuubi without resistance allowed the chakra to flood over Naruto. The feared red chakra coated Naruto, but unlike the other times; Naruto was in control of his faculties. With his emotions in check, the chakra surrounded Naruto like a second skin, and the two tails danced behind Naruto.

Jiraiya's clone was awe inspired to see his student coated with one of the most powerful forces in the elemental world. Jiraiya could see that the chakra provided armor like protection, and the two tails were like independent appendages. However, Jiraiya knew that the chakra coating the tails would be corrosive to anyone unlucky enough to be speared by the chakra tail. The enemy would be facing a slow burn if they survive the impaling due to the highly toxic nature of the Kyuubi chakra would have on a person's internal system.

Jiraiya could see that since they were chakra-based tails that they could provide ranged attacks that Naruto would need to complement his close combat style. If Naruto could retain this power while holding his faculties and calm, he could be a deadly warrior. The chakra shield would provide Naruto a defense similar to Gaara's ultimate defense, and the tails would provide similar long range capabilities to Orochimaru's snake attacks or Kaguya Kimimaro's bone spears. Jiraiya was going to have to train Naruto to hold his tailed forms as long as possible. If Naruto could draw on a two to three tail mode without the corrosive side effects to his mind, then his power would be greater than most Jounin. If he could couple these powers with the other skills that he was being taught, then he could be as strong if not stronger than the Sannin and the Kages.

"Naruto, how are you feeling?" Jiraiya clone asked his student.

"Ero-sennin, normally, I can only handle part of the Kyuubi's power. However, with these two tails and chakra, I feel incredible. The tails are alive, and seem to move independent of me. I think the Kyuubi controls the tails, but with our mental link, I can communicate my ideas to the Kyuubi. Right now, I am telling the Kyuubi to spear those trees with the tail. While the Kyuubi attacks the trees, throw some kunai at me."

Jiraiya threw about ten shuriken and kunai at Naruto, and he watched as one tail elongated to block the projectiles, while the other tail leveled a group of trees that were near the river. Jiraiya took a moment to process the potential of these powers and quickly analyzed the situation.

_If the tails work independent of Naruto, it would be like fighting two or three people at once. The Kyuubi's tails would be able to carry out independent attacks while Naruto worked out ninjutsu or taijutsu attacks. _

With the force of lightning hitting him in the head, Jiraiya realized. _Naruto could attain sage mode without the weakness of being still or defenseless on a battlefield. He could maintain the absolute focus necessary to draw out the mode, but he could use the Kyuubi's tails or chakra shield to give himself the time to draw out the mode or use some of the harder attacks like the melodic genjutsu!! _

_If you combine this with Naruto's ability to draw out multiple shadow clones, he could create an army to perform ninjutsu and taijutsu attacks on opponents. If this opponent could somehow get by this army, then he would still have to the Kyuubi's tails to keep enemies away from him. Naruto could attain Sage mode quicker than anyone before him, and still be able to keep an offensive position. Morever, if Naruto could summon multiple toads to his aid, then this would only increase the variety of opponents that Naruto could throw at an enemy. _

_Clones, toads, and Kyuubi's tails would provide Naruto an incredible force to throw at any enemy to decimate the forces. If the clones could do Rasengan and the Hiraishin, then the army of Naruto clones could be devastating. Even without the Sage Mode, Naruto could decimate shinobi forces with these skills. With Naruto's immense chakra and three tails of chakra, he could do this strategy with maybe 100 to 200 clones and a couple of Gamaken size toads. The clones could fight or use ninjutsu like the Rasengan or other powerful ninjutsu. Naruto will be far greater than Minato, when it is all said and done. Minato could take out forces of fifty or sixty ninjas, but with Naruto's mastery of Shadow clones and chakra reserves, he could take out forces the size of the ones that tried to invade the Village during the Chuunin exam. This is assuming that we can continue this program for the remaining two years._

_After we get through these initial phases of training, I cannot wait to have Naruto learn ninjutsu like his old man and I know. If we can diversify his ninjutsu, then he will be able to take on a variety of opponents. The key to our Naruto one man army strategy is for him to draw out the Kyuubi's chakra like a second skin. This way when he seeks out natural chakra in the Sage training, then it will not interfere with the calm needed to obtain Sage Mode. With the Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto could be a village defense force all into himself. If you combine it with the strength and powers of sage mode, then he could give someone like Madara a run for their money._

"Naruto, do you feel tired? Remember, I want you to retain the breathing and mental control you learned during meditation during this training." Jiraiya asked as he watched his student work on using the tails.

"Ero-sennin, it does not feel bad at all. I feel alive and full of energy. This is unreal how much energy that I can feel." Naruto beamed at his sensei clone.

Naruto continued to train and use his tail for the remainder of the afternoon. He also had the Ero Sennin throw various projectiles and jutsu at him. Naruto could repel water, air, fire, earth projectiles with the tail. Since the tail was an extension of Naruto's chakra armor, if a projectile could somehow avoid the tails, then it would still have to penetrate the armor itself.

Jiraiya did not want to test all his A or S class level ninjutsu on Naruto till he was sure that Naruto was in control of the armor. He had used only C and B level jutsu for this first training sessiom, but he was sure that he would be pushing the levels upwards. This was the chakra of the strongest entity in existence, which leveled the Village all those years ago. The chakra of such an entity could handle A and S class jutsu, so Jiraiya knew that it would only be a matter of time.

After an intense afternoon of drawing out the Kyuubi's chakra, the Jiraiya clone encouraged Naruto to end the session by steadying his breathing and allowing the fox's chakra to recede. As he powered down, Naruto could feel the immense fatigue set in having maintained the two tail mode for such a long time. Even when he had fought Sasuke, the battle had lasted under 30 minutes, and he was only in two tail mode for a portion of it. Also, he had such incredibly grueling work out in the morning that it was natural for Naruto to feel thoroughly exhausted.

After they had a quick dinner, Naruto got back to working on his seal knowledge. He was having trouble with the detailed work to create seals. He was able to get some of the more basic ideas. The easiest seals were the ones that were used to create explosive tags. The seal compressed chakra that would be released upon detection of another chakra presence or to release on a timer, when a bit of chakra pulsed into the tag.

Naruto was working on creating his own explosive tags. He had gotten the tags with the delay timers down, but he was struggling on working with tags that would not explode in his presence. He needed to create tags that he could set in an area that would not react if he passed by them. No point in setting traps that he would possibly set off in a battle if things did not go according to plan. He showed the tag with the chakra sensor to Jiraiya's clone who showed him how to implant his Kyuubi chakra into the detector portion of the seal. His demonic chakra was unique and would insure that it would not set off in his presence. Additionally, Jiraiya showed him how that he was just being sloppy with the symbols.

"Attention to detail is the key to insure that the seal performs how you want it to. If you want to reduce or amplify its power, the details of the seal will matter."

Naruto was excited as he figured out the key to insure that his tags would never go off with him setting it off.

Before he could go to sleep, Naruto wanted to see the real Jiraiya return back. Jiraiya had told him that he would be back late that night. Around midnight the clones poofed out of existence, as the legendary Toad Sage emerged.

"It seems you have been busy today, Naruto. I know it is late, and you had your dinner, but do you want some instant ramen?" He smiled knowing that his student could not say no to a bowl of ramen. As he processed the shadow clone's analysis, he felt a sense of pride and comfort. He was still apprehensive having to face the Akatsuki and Madara, but if Naruto could reach his potential, then he may be truly the force that the village would need to face those threats. They enjoyed their late night snack before turning in for the night.


	7. Naruto and Jiraiya spar

**Chapter Seven: Naruto and Jiraiya Spar**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

" "- Character talking to another character

Summary: What happened when Naruto and Jiraiya leave on their 3 year training mission? What if Naruto learned more then he could ever imagine about himself and becoming a great ninja? AN: I have not decided on any pairings and Naruto will become strong and intelligent during this trip.

**Recap: Naruto learns Muay Thai and begins to work on drawing out the Kyuubi's chakra.**

**AN: I do not own Kishimoto's work or characters. I only own the rights to the original characters that I create. **

**AN: Please review the story and giving me feed back. It helps me know that you are enjoying it. Also, please discuss any ideas of gaps in the current canon that should have been addressed during the training. I appreciate all your words of encouragement. **

**AN: Thank you to Anomie86 for once again cleaning up my grammar and other errors.**

Naruto had spent the past 3 months working on his Taijutsu, and he had grown by leaps and bounds. The Muay Thai style and Capoeira styles were being mastered by the young Genin. His use of the clones had allowed him to master each style. Over the first month, Naruto had worked on being proficient with the leg striking style. In fact, it had become natural for Naruto to keep Jiraiya's clones constantly blocking with the speed of his leg strikes. In the second month, he had learned the graceful style of Capoeira. The original Naruto learned the Capoeira style, while his clones worked on Muay Thai mastering the katas. In the third month, Naruto would work on blending the styles, while the clones would work on each of the styles to continue his mastery of them.

Moreover, Naruto's speed had been growing by leaps and bounds as his gravity seals had been increased. Naruto was now carrying 1.8 times his weight. As he had continued his strength programming on alternate days to his taijutsu training, he had seen the results begin to show. He was now doing on his workout days over double his initial repetitions while having his weight almost being doubled. Naruto's body had tightened into a powerhouse with very little body fat. He may not be able to match Lee's or Gai's work out program, but Naruto's program would put him on a tier below those taijutsu masters in strength. However, his yoga was an area that he knew that he had gained even more. Before the program, his flexibility was limited or average, but he had now gained tremendous the limberness to effectively perform the dance-like Katas of Capoeira. Naruto could perform various maneuvers such as doing roll, do handstands to move away, perform low leg sweeps, go ahead from his hand stand to helicopter like kicks.

Jiraiya knew that Naruto would have to change up his work out routine to complement his student's progress. _Naruto may have to alternate the meditation and working out during the week, and focus on taijutsu everyday. Blending these two styles is more difficult then I had originally thought, and I want Naruto to begin incorporating his taijutsu styles while in his tailed form. To maintain his tailed form will get Naruto to make it a 2nd skin where it will not bother him when he draws out Sage mode. _

"Naruto, before we start today's taijutsu session, I want to inform you of your progress, and alter our program. We have made great progress over the past three months, as I think your speed, strength, mental acumen, and flexibility are now high Chuunin level. At this rate, you will be high Jounin level by the end of next year. Though you have made incredible progress, you should always remember the speed difference between Chuunin and Jounin is vast. For example, Kakashi is much faster than for example Iruka. This does not mean Iruka could not defeat Kakashi, but it will take more effort to do this. Iruka would have to work out a plan to negate the speed advantages that Kakashi has. This is not as much of a problem as your shadow clones negate speed advantages to a degree because you can overwhelm with sheer numbers no matter how fast they maybe. Since you are not slow, even a Jounin can be overwhelmed by Chuunin level speed clones. It is similar to how your clones overwhelmed Mizuki. You were just out of the academy and he was a high level Chuunin, but your clones overwhelmed whatever speed advantage that he may have had in a one on one fight."

Naruto nodded realizing that his clones had allowed him to kick Mizuki all over the forest. There were just too many hands and legs for Mizuki to block. A small smirk went across his face while remembering how he beat the life out of that psychotic idiot Mizuki.

Jiraiya continued to speak snapping Naruto from his day dream. "I do not want to stop working out, but to keep this up, we will limit need to limit your meditation sessions. I think you have made tremendous progress in achieving balance and steadiness. I do not want to say any person can master meditation, but you have made great strides. Now, you will meditate in the morning three times a week and the other four days continue work out in the morning. We will work out every day with your taijutsu. After you warm up with your katas for an hour or so with your clones in three groups, two of the groups will be focused on each style of taijutsu separately; and the final group will work on whatever moves or motions that we have developed from blending the styles. After the groups have finished, we will spend the entire day for the next month working on simply sparring using taijutsu. You can use whatever styles or combination that you would like. However, I want you to fight me in your tailed form.

I will be using clones and some toads to help me keep your tails busy. I will be gradually coming at you with everything that I have in terms of ninjutsu or taijutsu. The reason that I can come at you with my vast arsenal is that your chakra shield and tails will provide armor that will protect you. However, you can only use the power of the tails and taijutsu against me. Now power up!"

Naruto nodded, and began to call forth the power of the tails. Over the past three months, he would meditate for an hour or so. The sessions had been very healing and the Kyuubi's natural anger and malice had begun to recede through these sessions. The Kyuubi had begun to see Naruto as a kit to protect. His own self interest was merging with Naruto's.

After the meditation, the Toad Sage and Naruto had worked on calling out the tailed form of the Kyuubi. Naruto had complete control of his faculties and could easily draw out three of the tails. The Kyuubi's chakra's corrosive nature was limited as Naruto had developed a technique of drawing out his own chakra as an underlayer to the Kyuubi's chakra shield. This technique had been an idea that Naruto had come up with as he watched how the red chakra coated his skin.

Naruto had asked Jiraiya if his blue chakra could coat his skin like the red chakra did. Jiraiya thought about and said he could see no reason that it could not. He would just need a huge amount of it, but this was no problem with Naruto. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I know that red chakra is not good for people over a long time, but somehow my chakra is able to help me deal with the fox's. Maybe, if I create an underlining of blue chakra, it would reduce any harmful effect of the red chakra on my skin."

Jiraiya was floored by the intelligent well thought out concept by his apprentice. "What you say makes a lot of sense, kid. Now, how do we go about dealing with it?"

"Maybe, I can call out my blue chakra like I did with the red chakra. I have to feel for it, and call it out." Naruto began to withdraw into himself to ready himself to draw out as much of his own chakra as he could.

Naruto found his core chakra and pulled it out that day in an impressive visible display of chakra swirling around Naruto. After this initial attempt, he would try to pull it out as part of his meditative sessions. It was very difficult but Naruto worked to help mold the chakra around his body versus it swirling as a massive blue mass that engulfed Naruto. He had worked on drawing out the blue chakra shield before he called out the red chakra to overlap it.

Over the three month period, he had been able to refine his technique. His blue chakra shield was not as dense as the red chakra, but it did provide protection. Jiraiya and Naruto had worked on throwing projectiles and ninjutsu at his blue shield. It worked as a hybrid of Kabuto's technique to draw chakra to an area to lessen an impact from an enemy's attack and Neji's Kaiten shield.

The Kaiten used rotation to expel the chakra so that there was a sphere made around the user. Naruto's shield worked more like armor and did not take up as much space. The blue chakra armor held up well against most kunai or projectiles. However, Naruto's chakra skin shield could be overwhelmed with jutsu. Jiraiya told Naruto to not worry if the A-level jutsu could pierce the chakra skin shield, as it was a second level of armor. The primary goal was for blue chakra to prevent the fox's chakra from burning Naruto's skin. It took Naruto the third month before he could comfortably call both the red chakra shield and tails with the blue chakra shield. The blue shield helped reduce the fatigue and recovery Naruto needed after his training sessions. It turned out that the fatigue that Naruto often felt was a combination of the amount of chakra that he was wielding and the energy that his body used in healing itself from the effects of the red chakra.

Even though the blue chakra skin shield used a lot of chakra, the level of chakra needed was nowhere near the level of energy that Naruto's healing factor required. In the end, Naruto used less chakra with this technique due to not having to constantly use his healing factor. Additionally, Jiraiya noted that Naruto did not need to power up his blue chakra shield too much when he overlapped it with the red chakra. The purpose of the blue shield when they overlapped was to be strong enough to keep the red chakra off Naruto's skin. If Naruto could not call out the Kyuubi's chakra, then he could intensify his blue chakra shield to make it more of a defensive armor.

Now, Naruto had layered his skin with his own blue chakra shield, and then the red chakra had overlapped this shield. He stood with three tails waving behind him. Naruto had gained control of the third tail during the 2nd month. The speed of the two shields enveloping Naruto was now almost instantaneous.

"I am ready, Ero-sennin! You are in for a whooping. Believe it!" Naruto grinned knowing he was just revving the legendary Sannin up.

"Brat, you may be good, but let us see if you are on my level!" Jiraiya smiled, and put his hand down to summon the toad that had saved Naruto from Itachi and Kisame, when Jiraiya and Naruto went to look for Tsunade to bring her back. He then followed it up by summoning four more armor clad toads to the forest field. "Attack the kid, but I want you to only let up when I tell you."

Jiraiya then summoned five Kage Bunshins with at least ten percent of Jiraiya's chakra reserve. He nodded at them, and they dispersed into the forest.

"Kid, go ahead and during this sessions release your gravity seals. As we get used to fighting in this mode, we will increase the weight. However, for this first session, I want you to measure yourself where you stand to someone of my level. Remember all the Akatsuki are S-level so they are all near or at my level. This is for you to honestly see where you stand after six months of training."

With that Naruto released all his restriction seals and gravity seals, Naruto felt incredibly light and ready.

Jiraiya rushed Naruto blowing out fire from his mouth calling out "Great Fireball Technique" and sent a huge fireball at Naruto. Naruto simply shushin'd out of the way.  
At that moment, he saw a toad launch at him with a battle axe in hand. The frog swung downward, and Naruto rolled under the leaping toad. He quickly launched from the roll into a spinning wheel kick, which hit the frog in the back. The toad flew into the tree from the kick, but it used his legs to propel himself off the wall back at Naruto.

At that moment, Jiraiya's clone launched several shuriken at Naruto. His tail shot out to stop shuriken. The other tail launched to counter attack the Toad Sage, and the third tail launched back to attack the toad. The toad was in midair since it used the wall to propel back at Naruto. The toad could not avoid the incoming chakra tail and returned back to his realm versus facing death.

At that moment, from the ground, a Jiraiya clone emerged from the ground with a Rasengan in his hand. Naruto jumped into the air, and the third tail went to spear the Jiraiya clone. The clone could not avoid the tail, and it speared him. However, at the last second, a log emerged where the clone was. _Damn, he used kawamiri to get away! I need to get the numbers down or they will wear me down. _

Naruto's tail hit the ground, and he used it to hold his body in the air for a second. He scanned and saw that two of the toads were coming at him. He had the tail release him and jumped back to avoid the two katana wielding toads. Naruto kicked his leg out towards one of the frog's leg, and then he spun his body and angled his body to deflect the other toad's wrist to deflect his sword swing.

Naruto followed up the deflection, by bringing his elbow into the head of the toad. He caught the toad in the eye area, which stunned the toad. Without missing a beat, he spun around the stunned frog, and he launched his leg out to the other toad, which was not prepared for such a quick fluid movement. The spin and kick caught the other toad squarely in the head sending it back flying.

Naruto heard Jiraiya scream "Earth Style: Dark Water Swamp of the Underworld!" The ground became soft and Naruto began to sink. Naruto used the tail to pole vault him away from the large 100 yard area that Jiraiya had surrounded Naruto. The two toads disappeared back to their realm.

The chakra tail had expanded to help Naruto avoid being stuck in the mud. As Naruto moved in the air, he saw the air bullets shooting towards him. Unfortunately, Naruto could not avoid the hit. He angled his body towards his shoulder and allowed the armor to absorb the blow. It did not penetrate the armor, but it definitely impacted his body.

When Naruto landed, he charged Jiraiya who stood in front of him. He launched a leg strike to Jiraiya's head, and followed up with a midsection kick. Jiraiya blocked the first kick. At this time, Naruto sent two tails from each side at Jiraiya. Jiraiya knew that he would have to move. He substituted with one of his clones. The clone was impaled by the tail, and at the same time, Naruto's kick to the midsection had connected. The clone disappeared after having it sternum cracked since it could not avoid the tails.

The toad that saved Naruto from Itachi jumped out and tried to kick Naruto in the head. The third tail grabbed the toad's legs and threw the toad against a tree. The toad then felt a knee to the back of its head. The toad then took its tongue and caught Naruto's ankle tossing him. A tail then emerged behind Naruto to help prevent him from being slammed into the tree. Naruto's other tail then lashed out towards the toad forcing him to release Naruto. Naruto then began a barrage of leg strikes at the toad. The toad tried to deflect the blows, but the arms were taking a beating in blocking all the kicks. Naruto alternated his strategy by striking at the legs knowing it was the strongest advantage of the toad. He wanted to limit the high flying moves of the toad by striking and damaging its legs.

At that moment, Naruto saw two clones trying to attack him. Naruto bent backwards and swung his legs above his head and did a hand stand. He quickly began rotating his legs like a helicopter striking both clones. The clones jumped back not fully being prepared and appreciating how flexible Naruto had become. The clones after overcoming their initial sting began attacking Naruto by trying to grab his legs. However, Naruto swung from the upside down helicopter and swung his legs into a low leg sweep which caused both Jiraiya clones to back up.

_Man, this kid has improved a lot. He has taken on toads and clones. Time to see how he can handle the heat!_

One clone then began to form the Fire Style: Phoenix flame jutsu, and the other clone began to form "Fuuton: Great Wind Release!" The wind knocked Naruto off balance, and as the fire and wind jutsu combined, the fire became hotter and wider. Naruto knew that he would struggle in this kind of heat. Naruto jumped back trying to avoid the wide expansive flame that had grown stronger when combined with the wind jutsu.

Unfortunately, Naruto could not move fast enough from the ever widening flame area, and Naruto instinctively called out to the Kyuubi for help. The Kyuubi's tail grew larger and enveloped Naruto in a dome of red chakra. This helped keep a pocket of air to breath. The Kyuubi's chakra shield could have absorbed the jutsu, but the wide expanse of the flames would have made it difficult to breathe in that environment. However, the wide flames caused the toad that saved Naruto from Itachi to disappear back to his realm versus becoming a platter of fried toad legs.

Naruto then launched the other two tails at the clones. Naruto, knowing that Jiraiya clones would be able to avoid the tails decided to turn up the pressure. He removed the chakra dome and had the tail attack one of the clones. He then engaged the other clone to effectively make it a two on two. However, Naruto decided that reducing the 'enemy' forces was more important. He went in and directly began a barrage of strikes to Jiraiya's head. The goal was to fully engage this clone to allow the third tail to disengage from this attack and attack the other clone. With the speed of the third tail rushing towards him, the clone could not avoid a direct attack and was impaled. It disappeared from the field.

Naruto kept the tails on guard for an ambush from the remaining. _There are three more clones plus the real Pervy Sage out there. I have got to focus! Maybe, if I can set a trap or two, then I catch the other clones. _

Naruto using his speed decided to launch the tails in a search and destroy mode to keep the remaining enemies off balance. He could sense the other signatures faintly, and he had the Kyuubi keep them off balance. Naruto jumped to a high tree, but while jumping to the tree, he left a chakra sensing tag at the base of the tree and near the branch. Naruto jumped from tree to tree, but at each tree, he placed four to five paper seals that he pulled out of his pocket when he pulled a few kunai out. He jumped from the trees to that were around him creating a perimeter, but he made it seem as if he was searching for enemies.

Naruto returned back to the ground, and knew that Jiraiya or the clones would engage him soon enough. As soon as he landed, a barrage of shuriken flew at Naruto, and he heard a voice yell "Shadow Shuriken Jutsu" which filled the earth with hundreds of shuriken. Naruto's tails worked feverishly to block all the incoming shuriken. The handful of shuriken that did escape the tails bounced off the chakra shield. As soon as he blocked those, another barrage of kunai flew from the trees multiplied by the cries of the "Shadow Kunai Jutsu". _What is he doing? He knows that the shields block weapons. _

As if Kami wanted to answer his question, he noticed that the kunai had various paper tags associated with it._ "Oh shit!" _Naruto yelled as he knew that he was surrounded by paper bombs.

Naruto's tails surrounded the chakra shield to enforce it and the explosion rocked Naruto off balance. As he fell back, he was enveloped in the soft flesh. _Damn, I am in the toad mouth bind jutsu. Ero-sennin bragged that nothing could escape the binding. It was only those crazy black flames that allowed Itachi to escape, and Pervy Sage was blown away by how strong those flames must have been._

"Brat, I got you now! You are now trapped within the legendary's Toad's Mouth." As Naruto struggled with being eaten by the lining, the tails were lashing out at various angles of the mouth. Jiraiya knew that if any power could overwhelm the binding that it could be the Kyuubi, so he decided to end this battle quickly.

He charged at Naruto with two Rasengans in hand and the tails instinctively came to block the powerful attacks. Jiraiya's Rasengans pushed them against the tails, which sensing the danger went forward to block the Rasengans. Naruto's third tail was trying to push Naruto back to a standing position. The power of the Rasengans fought against the tails in a powerful explosion of power. The backlash of the explosion was awesome, and it blasted Jiraiya back into the wall of the toad's mouth. The backlash knocked Naruto back into the binding. He knew that it was going to be over without a miracle.

"The match is over!" Jiraiya bellowed and dispelled the jutsu. Naruto felt relief as he felt his mobility return, and he began to withdraw the tailed form and blue chakra skin shields.

"You did very well Naruto. You used the tails effectively, and you were able to keep up the attack only using taijutsu and the tails. I know you were trying to trap me with those seals, which is why I decided that it was time to turn the tables on you. I put you in the middle of a trap. If we incorporate your clones to this style of battling, then it would make it even more difficult to concentrate on you. Your clones could prevent enemies from ganging up on you or being able to simply sit back and use ninjutsu Also, if you use clones, then you can set traps more effectively without the enemy being able to notice that you are setting them. In a real battle, you will not be as handicapped. However, if you learn to fight in various situations with various limitations; then you will learn to fully utilize your core moves more effectively."

Naruto sat on the ground worn out from the battle. He had never maintained the tailed form and blue chakra shield in such an intense manner. He needed a moment to catch his breath. He nodded as he saw how he could improve his style when he could incorporate the clones and ninjutsu to his arsenal.

_Sasuke, I am going to bring you home, even if I have to break every bone in your body. I am definitely going to be ready for our rematch!_


	8. Naruto Loses Control!

**Chapter Eight – Naruto Loses Control**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

" "- Character talking to another character

Summary: What happened when Naruto and Jiraiya leave on their 3 year training mission? What if Naruto learned more then he could ever imagine about himself and becoming a great ninja? AN: I have not decided on any pairings and Naruto will become strong and intelligent during this trip.

**Recap: Naruto and Jiraiya spar with Naruto learning to fight in the three tailed mode.**

**AN: I do not own Kishimoto's work or characters. I only own the rights to the original characters that I create. **

**AN: Please review the story and giving me feed back. It helps me know that you are enjoying it. Also, please discuss any ideas of gaps in the current canon that should have been addressed during the training. I appreciate all your words of encouragement. **

**AN2: Thank you to Anomie86 for once again cleaning up my grammar and other errors.**

**AN3: I am sorry for updating so slowly, as I am right now in the middle of law school finals and running my fledgling business. It is not fair to readers who have given me such wonderful encouragement to make excuses. It is the truth. **

**AN4: This fight scene tried to stay within the canon as much as possible. My goal is to try and tie this back to the manga arcs with as much as possible. I want this to fill in gaps in the story. This is why I have focused on training and the bond of Jiraiya and Naruto in this story, as some readers noted that I have spent a lot of chapters on training. **

Though Naruto had progressed tremendously under the year of training by Jiraiya, there was a missing element to the training. As was the case with simulated battle situations, it lacked the life or death element that is necessary for a shinobi to truly put their mettle to the test. Jiraiya knew that it would take something tremendous to shake the calm Naruto that had developed from the extensive training in yoga and meditation. To solve this issue, he decided to increase the intensity by making it more realistic.

Naruto had finished his training and was preparing their dinner by an open camp fire. As it was now winter, the weather had gotten chillier. Naruto's new uniform was much better suited to handle the cold. Naruto's old uniform had shrunk under the growth and development, so Jiraiya had designed a more suitable outfit for a warrior. Replacing the orange jump suit, Naruto was now wearing black pants with pockets along the sides for kunai and other tools. The pants had a light mail chains laced in the thigh and shin area to help reduce the impact of projectiles. It had been sewn into a layer between the exterior and the lining. He had taken a long sleeve white shirt cotton shirt, and he wore a light chain mail-like armor under this. Jiraiya had suggested since Naruto's favorite attacks were up close and personal that he build in some protection against projectiles or stabbing efforts. Additionally, the mail was made from chakra conducting metal. It was designed to have chakra flow through it to help harden it. Additionally, the metal was designed to utilize Naruto's chakra shield techniques and provide form to vital areas and make them virtually indestructible. When Naruto uses the blue chakra, it would get additional conduction and magnification along the thighs, shins, chest, abdomen, shoulders, arms, and back and provide less of a chakra strain while also protecting those areas.

Naruto was also had purchased arm bracers that had angled blades in the shape of an angle "L" on each side of the bracer. These bracers were also laced with chakra conducting metals were the blade attached to the bracers. As Naruto's Muay Thai style incorporated using elbows to attack and forearms to block, the bracers allowed those attacks to have additional power. Naruto wore a glove with the fingers cut off, and those gloves were reinforced in the knuckle area with chakra metal. The gloves provide additional protection to his hand and also increased the efficiency of his punches and jabs.

Naruto wore black boots that had steel tips on the heel, sole, and tip. The metal was chakra conducting metal that also enhanced the chakra that Naruto used to walk on surfaces. The soles were thick rubber, so it provided great protection against the elements and great traction. Many shinobi wore sandals, but this seemed impractical in a battle type situation to have such a vital area exposed to easy punishment.

Naruto's hair had grown to a length that it was similar in length to Jiraiya's hair. Naruto knew that one of the Toad Sage's favorite jutsu was turning his hair into a spiky barrier, and Naruto wanted to learn that when the time came. This way, if Naruto was conserving chakra and trying to avoid using all of his chakra with a chakra shields that he had a way to defend him from various attacks.

Jiraiya had taught Naruto that many shinobi failed to appreciate defensive jutsu and protective gear in their arsenal. This is why so much time was spent building up his armor and shield techniques. Shinobi who were strong often were defeated by sheer numbers overwhelming them. The classic one-on-one battle happening in a time of war is a pipe dream, and if the enemy knew that you were strong; then they would try to flank you or ambush you.

"When we are done with your training, the four Hokages on that mountain would have found you a challenge to take on." Jiraiya smirked while they were eating the fish that Naruto had caught that evening. Naruto beamed with that praise from the Toad Sage.

"Thank you. Ero-sennin, I owe you so much for taking so much interest in a guy like me. I know I sometimes knock you for being a pervert, but you have truly saved my dreams. There were times with Kakashi-sensei that I tried hard, but it always seemed Sasuke seemed so far ahead of me with his jutsu. Now, I can feel myself getting stronger and more prepared to truly achieve my dream. Now, it does not just seem like big boasting."

Jiraiya's smile increased with that heart felt thank you. "When the time comes, you will meet Fukasaku and his wife, Shima. They are the great sages of the toads, and they will take your powers to the next level. They were my teachers as well, and I know that if we keep up like this that you will go to unheard of heights with their help. I am going to be excited to introduce you to them. When the time is right, we will go to see them, as they never leave the mountain home of the toads." Jiraiya sighed as he measured his next words.

"I said they never leave the mountain home of the toads, but this is not true. If you ever meet them without me around, then I have died in battle. They will come for you to name you as my successor as the Toad Sage and holder of the Toad contract." Naruto's face look shocked and a visible look of sadness crossed his face as Jiraiya's words sunk in. He quickly dispelled that depressed look and the determined look in his eyes returned with a vengeance.

"Well lucky for me that ain't ever going to happen. Ero-sennin, I know that you are too tough to be taken out, and with me at your side; it is going to take an army to take us both out. Believe it!"

Jiraiya's face broke out in a smile to ease the tension. "Kid, I am not going anywhere for a long time. I am not the legendary Toad Sage and member of the Sannin for nothing! Tomorrow, we are going to visit our old friend Orochimaru's land. I want to do some recon work there to see what kind of plans he has been making since his defeat and his taking on Sasuke."

Jiraiya knew that the prospect of visiting Sasuke would test Naruto's focus and balance. It is easy to retain mental focus in the isolation of the forest. They would need to increase the intensity of the moment.

"I know of an outpost that the Village Hidden in the Sound uses as their vantage point to guard against advance by the Hidden Rain and Mist Villages. We will go there to see what kind of information that we can detect there about any kinds of movement."

Naruto's excitement grew as he was aching to meet real opponents. Sparring with the great Jiraiya was incredibly difficult and a great lesson, but it would be nice in to hit a real opponent.

_What if we see Sasuke? Am I ready?_ Naruto pondered as he cleaned up the fire and set ready to take the first shift. His clones would spell him when he was too tired.

The next morning, they set off at break neck speed to reach the Sound Village's outpost. The plan was for Jiraiya to do some recon work while Naruto waited for any signs of trouble. Jiraiya showed Naruto how to use smaller frogs to act as messengers to each other.

Naruto was to remain quite a distance back from the outpost, so as to avoid drawing attention. Naruto worked on his seals while waiting for Jiraiya to provide a signal if he was detected. He had placed several sensors that would be set off by other chakra signatures around his perimeter. Additionally, he was working on a barrier seal. He wanted to try and weaken stronger opponents within a chakra draining barrier. The seal was designed to draw out a person's chakra and absorb it in the seal. Additionally, when a person tried to draw out chakra; the seal would absorb that as well. Naruto had worked on that seal to fight stronger enemies like Orochimaru. Jiraiya was actually impressed with Naruto's ingenuity, as he had amplified the method on which a seal drew in power, and he removed any restraint or limits to how much power the seal draws in. Additionally, he had placed in the mechanism that set the trigger for any person other than Naruto to set off the seal's power.

After Naruto had finished making some extra seals that he had places on some kunai to use in a battle, he heard a noise. When he looked up, he saw Sasuke emerge from the forest.

"Loser, you are still so pathetic after all this time. To think your teacher was one of the legendary Sannin. You could not mask you signature so I could not detect it. Prepare to let me finish what I should have finished at the Valley of the End."

"Sasuke, you need to quit acting so dumb. Orochimaru is just going to use you and take your body. You are going to be just a vessel for his soul, and then what will you have left with your goals of getting revenge?!" Naruto yelled at his former teammate.

"I will deal with it, so don't worry about me." Sasuke replied as he pulled the katana from his back.

Sasuke charged the katana with electricity. Naruto could see that Sasuke meant business. He began to draw out his blue chakra shield and his fox chakra to prepare for this battle. He put his guard up with his fist and prepared for the onslaught. The three tails lashed out at Sasuke forcing Sasuke to jump from his stance into the air. Sasuke had to twist in the air as the tails changed position and avoid the three corrosive red tails. He used his Kusanagi sword to try and block the tail.

Sasuke could see that Naruto had gained greater control of the Kyuubi's power, so he decided to evolve to his level two form. As the wings emerged, Sasuke flew above the tails. Sasuke then rained down a great fire ball jutsu. Naruto absorbed the heat, as the fox's natural affinity was fire so it had little effect on his fox chakra cloak.

"If this is all you got bastard, you may as well just give up!" Naruto yelled at his flying former friend.

Naruto then called on his signature move, and formed ten shadow clones. The clones also had three tails. Two clones kneeled down, and the other clones used them as a launching point to hurtle into the air. The clones used that higher vantage point to launch their tails at Sasuke. Instead of falling back to the ground, two tails were used to help keep Naruto up at the higher elevation. The remaining tail was used to continue the offensive. Sasuke avoided the tails, but knew that he could not keep up the defensive position all day. Sasuke knew that Jiraiya would be returning soon, and there was no way that he could handle Naruto and Jiraiya.

Sasuke threw a flash bomb and used the momentary blinding to get behind Naruto. He used that moment to summon three snakes almost the size of Manda to help him. The Snakes launched at the clones and were impaled on the tails of the clones. The Snakes disappeared to their realm. However, the Snakes had impaled several of the clones with their fangs, and so the clones disappeared as the poison took its toll. Naruto was left with just three clones from the original group of ten. It was then that Sasuke took advantage of the confusion to attack with his Chidori combining it with the power of unbreakable Kusanagi blade. He impaled three clones remaining leaving only the original Naruto on the field.

When the tails of the real Naruto launched towards Sasuke, he launched into another series of hand signs and summoned the gates of Rashomon. Naruto's tails were stretching to the limits the power of the three gates. Knowing that he may not be able to hold off his Kyuubi enhanced opponent, Sasuke summoned a great water wall that emerged and used it to wash the field away. Naruto was swept back by the currents, and by the time that he emerged to his original location, Sasuke had fled the scene.

_Next time, we meet LOser. You will not survive_. Sasuke knew that now was not the time to engage Naruto with the Sannin so close by. He would have to talk to Orochimaru and Kabuto on how to deal with these developments to Naruto's style.

"Sasuke!!!!!!!!!" Naruto roared in the empty field. He knew that Sasuke was not here for a full blown battle, but he had decided to test Naruto. When they were on Team 7, they tested each other, and now as they learn under their legendary sensei, why would it be any different?

Naruto's anger was raging as he began to realize that he had once again failed to capture Sasuke. For the first time since the Valley of the end, Naruto felt like a failure. His mental fortitude built up over the year of control began to fail. He began mentally demanding his fox prisoner to give him the strength to catch up to Sasuke. Naruto began to go beyond his three tail form to his four tail form. This was foreign territory for Naruto as he had only built up control up to three tails. However in is extreme emotional state, the fourth tail emerged. At this level of chakra and in the exhausted state, Naruto lost control to the animal instincts of the Kyuubi.

All he could feel was the rage of failing Sakura once again. _I failed to keep my nindo. If I fail at this, will I ever become Hokage? Will they ever trust me? Will I ever find respect from the village? What if all fails? _

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Naruto's eyes were lost in rage, and he could no longer make out friend or foe. He could only feel rage. He wanted to make the pain stop.

Jiraiya emerged slowly from the forest, as he could feel that chakra spike and assumed Naruto had achieved the fourth tail in a training session. However, as he saw the state Naruto was in, he knew that this was the calm, controlled Naruto was no longer there. This was the Kyuubi's underlying rage mixed with Naruto's pain come to life. Jiraiya knew that if he did not do something that Naruto could destroy him as well as most of the Rice country in this state.

Jiraiya summoned the Swamp of the Underworld. Naruto's tails automatically pole vaulted the Kyuubified Naruto into the sky. This prevented from him from being caught in the swamp's effect. Naruto's two tails launched at Jiraiya at a lighting speed that Jiraiya could barely follow.

Jiraiya knew that this was no spar and that Naruto would not hold back this time. Jiraiya summoned Gamaken and two other solider toads to the field. "Old friends, we have to fight Naruto and this is no spar. Keep him distracted. Jiraiya launched an earth wall to provide cover. He then created 4 clones and ordered them to disperse. Jiraiya then called Shima and Fukusaku to the field.

"Ma and Pa, Naruto has lost control of himself to the Kyuubi and his inner rage. I will need your help to help me take him down. "

The elder sage spoke, "Little Jiraiya, what do ya have in mind?"

"Naruto's greatest weakness is genjutsu. Maybe, the Kyuubi state shares that weakness. It is time to bring out our Melody genjutsu. If we can trap him in that state, maybe we can help him recede from this tailed mode." Jiraiya explained to Shima and Fukusaku who agreed that the plan may work.

The clone Jiraiyas were launching various jutsu against Naruto who was using his tails to block. However, this Naruto was only reacting in a primal instinct. The ability to rationalize had been replaced with a sheer rage. The tails were not moving with precise movement but now he was just blindly lashing out.

The Gamaken and the toad soldiers were flanking Naruto forcing two tails to try and fend off their blows. Though his fox chakra was invulnerable to many blows, the strain that the four tail mode was creating caused extreme damage to his cellular structure. Additionally, the blue shield had receded as Naruto's mental control had slipped away. Though the shield was protecting, it was also weakening Naruto. His body's healing factor was working to counteract the effects. This created incredible strain on Naruto's body.

One of the Jiraiya clones noticed a bag by the rock where Naruto had been working on his tag. He saw one the tags that Naruto had designed to leech Chakra from the host to create a bubble imprisoning the person who was caught in the seal. He knew that this may be the only way to defeat Naruto without killing him in this state.

Shima and Fukusaku's melody soon flooded the field, and all the toads and clones disappeared from the field. The Kyuubified Naruto was now caught in the genjutsu, and Naruto was caught in the power of the genjutsu. He could not move. Jiraiya emerged from the forest, where he had switched with a clone to give himself time to draw out his Sage mode. In Sage mode, Jiraiya strength and speed were greatly enhanced. He used a split second after the clones disappeared to absorb his clone's observation. He launched with lightning quick speed to the bag. He grabbed the seals and knew that he had the perfect use for them. He quickly modified the fail safe trigger to remove the seals ability to trigger upon contact with Naruto, and he reset the triggers to be used by himself or the Toad sages. "Ma and Pa, if something happens, then you can deactivate this seal since we are in amphibian mode. I am sharing toad-like qualities, so you can also deactivate this seal. "

However, the Kyuubi chakra was a second chakra in Naruto's body, and the chakra of the Kyuubi was working to overwhelm Naruto's chakra, which would dispel the genjutsu. As predicted, the genjutsu began to wear off and Kyuubi Naruto began to emerge from his stupor. Jiraiya knew that if the Kyuubified Naruto got its bearings that he probably could not stop him with so few reinforcements. Jiraiya launched to Naruto's forehead with the seal outstretched in his hand. This seal would use the Kyuubi's own chakra to bind Naruto till Jiraiya could create a seal to reverse the Kyuubi's chakra into the Yondaime's seal or till Naruto regained control of his mental faculties.

Jiraiya had reached his pupil's forehead and placed the seal on his forehead. However, this act of heroism came at a deep price. Jiraiya's body was being impaled by a tail from the Kyuubi that had emerged to protect the Kyuubified Naruto. In Sage mode, Jiraiya's body was more invulnerable, but not many things could withstand the Kyuubi's tail directly piercing it. With blood gushing from his chest and the corrosive power of the Kyuubi's chakra spreading, Jiraiya realized that he may have cut his pupil's training short with a premature exit from this existence.

"I still have so much that I wanted to teach you kid." Without another word, Jiraiya's eyes closed and he fell backward.


	9. Story Notes and Discussion

**Author's Discussion: I have received some in depth feedback and discussion. I figure that if these reviewers have these questions; then others might as well. I am posting response to these issues to discuss it. I hope this provides some insight. Also, I am not sure if this is the best way to acknowledge the discussion or should I be doing it every chapter. I try to respond to questions, story comments with messages. I realize that if one person thinks these thoughts, then maybe I should address it more broadly so other readers can agree or disagree with me. **

Adamrpg: I appreciated the feedback (Boy and His Sensei). I am sorry for updating  
slowly. I am in law school and I started a business that is only 2 years old. This hopefully explains my slow nature in updating. Additionally, I had also been struggling with how far I wanted to take the fight scene in the new chapter. I am not great with the Japanese names of jutsu. I know that some people make Naruto superstar of like 50 things only in a few months. I disagree that something that takes Lee years to master can be dominated in weeks. It is why certain things take longer. I think that ninjutsu can go quicker with his kage bushin training. used a year to provide him skills in physical strength, mental control, seals, taijutsu, controlling chakra, setting traps. I have tried to demonstrate that over the past few chapters with various examples.

I will try to increase him more so he better rounded. It may be hard in one battle to demonstrate all aspects of his skills. However, I hope to lace it in upcoming chapters.

If you are saying I am not progressing Naruto far enough in terms of skill, then I hope my explaination works. If it is that I am slow in writing, then I hope my explanation helps answer it.

Your feedback is very much appreciated

**Kkyght:** Thank you for your review of a boy and his sensei. I appreciate it. When I  
read good feedback, I feel like I should discuss or explain my thoughts  
directly. Through this process, I hope to work out the details.

I think that his infatuation with Sakura and obsession with getting  
Sasuke should fade away. However, I always believed that since he left feeling like a failure  
that this would be his one sore spot. He has been in training for one year into training, and they have been  
more or less in isolation, so Naruto's training had not been tested to fullest. This chapter hoped to indicate that.

Also, I think for Naruto to lose his obsessions that he needs a powerful  
moment to teach him that lesson. I hope that the events of this chapter will  
do so. He is just a young teenager so growing into his maturity will take time.

In regards to his chakra control, I think that Naruto's rasengan and training  
indicate he has improved control. Though, I did not use it in this battle. I removed it as an option as Sasuke took flight, and I wanted to highlight the power of his tailed form battle style. In other battles, his Rasengan will be a one handed version. However, this chapter was to rip an old wound open. For him to hold tailed form, and clones with tailed form, and human chakra shield are tremendous exertion. I think in his 4 tailed mode Naruto's mental faculties would not be there, so the control efforts needed to retain his chakra shield would not be there. It seems logical if you consider the rage that may lie within the Kyuubi's rage combined with the rage Naruto has repressed away.

I agree with your request for Kenjutsu training is an area that I do intend to take Naruto in the future along with his ninjutsu training. This is a 3 year training  
(in the manga), so I want to space out the various training. In fact, I may extend it over a bit to make sure I truly develop Naruto's training, personality, and bond to Jiraiya. I think that this was an overlooked element and totally underdeveloped in terms of Naruto's progress.

**General thoughts**: As I said I do want the Naruto in this story to end up a better warrior than how Kishi has developed him after the time skip. However, I wanted to not remove the arc angles in the manga story lines such as Naruto's obsession with defeating Sasuke. I think that in the manga that he should have lost his obsession when he saw what his foolish rage did to everyone when he faced Orochimaru, as he hurt Sakura. Another moment that this occurs is when he learns of Jiraiya's death. Though there great moment to address his immaturity, I wanted to evolve him earlier.

Also, I may extend this out over the 2 and half year time period that the manga says he spent to insure that the training is correct. If Naruto's deadline was based on saving Sasuke, then it makes sense that without the obession that he can train to do what is necessary. Also, the nature of this story is to put more depth into training, as I think Naruto or Sasuke end up so powerful with just a week of time or in one night. I think that is why I have focused on that training regimen and make it seems it is more continuous. This allows Naruto to return and have the appropriate level that he should have if he had trained with a Sanin.

Thank you for the review. I hope this provides insight into the story line and my thoughts. I know some people may disagree, but this is why I thought this would be healthy point in story to address this. Please continue to look out for my updates, provide feedback, and your thoughts.


	10. Jiraiya's life on the line

**Chapter Nine – Jiraiya's Life On The Line**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

" "- Character talking to another character

**My apologies for not updating for such a long time, but I have been swamped with work and life events. I am a business owner, and I go to law school at night. This rough economic period has put my new found company in a fight for survival. I have found time to write tonight, so I want to take my story further. **

Summary: What happened when Naruto and Jiraiya leave on their 3 year training mission? What if Naruto learned more then he could ever imagine about himself and becoming a great ninja? AN: I have not decided on any pairings and Naruto will become strong and intelligent during this trip.

**AN: I do not own Kishimoto's work or characters. I only own the rights to the original characters that I create. **

**AN: Please review the story. It helps me know that you are enjoying it. Also, please discuss any ideas of gaps in the current canon that should have been addressed during the training. **

**Previously: **Jiraiya had reached his pupil's forehead and placed the seal on his forehead. However, this act of heroism came at a deep price. Jiraiya's body was being impaled by a tail from the Kyuubi that had emerged to protect the Kyuubi Naruto. In Sage mode, Jiraiya's body was more invulnerable, but not many things could withstand the Kyuubi's tail directly piercing it. With blood gushing from his chest and the corrosive power of the Kyuubi's chakra spreading, Jiraiya realized that he may have cut his pupil's training short with a premature exit from this existence.

"I still have so much that I wanted to teach you kid." Without another word, Jiraiya's eyes closed and he fell backward.

Naruto's Kyuubi chakra receded as the seal began to draw out his chakra to power up the very prison that imprisoned him. As the chakra began to abate, Naruto's human personality began to emerge from his blood rage to see his sensei and grandfather like figure bleeding before him. As total fear and panic gripped his heart, the man who had become his family was on death's doorstep.

"What have I done?" Naruto cried out. He could not remember what happened during his battle with Sasuke, but something in his gut told him that he was responsible for this. He knelt down inside his prison bubble with his hand reaching out against the shield.

"Please, do not leave me, sensei! I lost the Old Man, and I cannot lose you. Without you, how will I become Hokage! You said after we were finished training that I could take any of the Hokages on that mountain." Naruto cried with tears streaming down his face. Hot, streaming tears poured out for the man who had helped him become recognized during the Chuunin exam. He taught him the legendary Rasengan, and how to summon the toad.

"Do not despair. Little Jiraiya is a tough tadpole." Naruto quickly looked up from his tears to see a small elderly male and female toad. "Little one, my name is Fukasaku, and my wife and I will not see our dear little Jiraiya leave us this early."

Naruto saw that the two small elderly toads were standing over their pupil with a glow emerging from their hands. They were using a high level of medical ninjutsu to try and cauterize the wounds on Jiraiya's chest. Ma toad summoned a medical toad to bring a balm to help cleanse and disinfect the wound. After the medical toad returned with the balm, she smeared it along the wound.

Naruto watched as the toads, poured hours and their powerful chakra into the wounds. Jiraiya's face was flinching in his comatose state. His body was reacting to the treatment, but it was not without its pain. Slowly the blood began to coagulate. The legendary Sannin was not going without a fight, and his body worked to help the sage toads to repel the kyuubi's corrosive chakra from his system. Fukusaku toad began to extract the Kyuubi chakra from the wounds to help allow the body to naturally heal. He was sealing the chakra in a storage seal (similar to how Jiraiya sealed Amaterasu when Itachi fled from the Toad Mouth Bind). Jiraiya's breathing was stabilizing as Shima toad began to bandage up the wounds to insure that it would not get an infection. Shima and Fukusaku began to draw seals along Jiraiya's body. These seals were used to provide a stasis field that would restrict Jiraiya's movements. This would insure that when they transported his body, that he would survive the reverse summoning.

"Luckily, he only punctured his lung, and the Kyuubi tail missed his heart by inches." Shima announced to a very relieved Naruto. "This will take time to heal, but he will survive. We will need to immobilize him in a seal that will prevent his body from tearing open these wounds. These wounds may have been stabilized, but if he wakes up from this too quickly; then he may reinjure himself."

"What kind of monster am I? Maybe, Jiraiya-sensei was wrong to believe in me. What if I cannot control the power of the Kyuubi?" Naruto asked to the legendary sages.

"Naruto, ya cannot control the Kyuubi, as it is a force of nature. You can only channel and work with the energy to assist your goals. If you were given a bucket, do ya think you could stop the ocean. However, ya could use the bucket to gather water to put a fire out. Do ya understand Little One?" Fukasaku looked over to Naruto.

With a slight nod, Naruto began to understand what the Sage meant. He could not look at his training as an attempt to control all his emotion or the Kyuubi. He needed to channel these emotions or powers. In attempting to control those aspects of his life, he was a ticking time bomb. Jiraiya told Naruto to learn to use meditation to make peace with the Kyuubi, but this was only partially correct. It was not enough to control your emotions to gain power, but he must find a balance with the Kyuubi and his own emotional outlook. He could not control the Kyuubi, but he could harness the power in the right situations. He could provide the Kyuubi appropriate channels to send its enormous power through.

"Naruto, we are going to bring you and Jiraiya to our home. While Jiraiya recovers, we will take over your training." Fukusaku stated. "We would release you from your prison, but you must recover from the trauma that you put on your body. It is time to for you to rest."

Naruto was relieved that his teacher and adopted grandfather was going to survive. He nodded in acknowledgement. He could feel the fatigue setting in, as he closed his eyes. He knew that he was safe with these powerful sages watching over him.

"Fukasaku, do you believe that this child is the one?" Shima asked her spouse. "Will he be the savior that was foretold to Jiraiya when he first trained with the toads? The power of the Kyuubi within him could lend him the power to be the greatest force ever seen in the elemental nations. However, his rage could be his undoing."

"Ma, he must choose the path of savior or destroyer. His rage and pain could lead him away from the path of honor and nobility. Those foolish villagers have created the pain that could lead him to be the very demon that they fear. We must help little Jiraiya guide him to the right path." Fukasaku stated matter of factly to his wife of many centuries.

Shima grabbed the stasis field around Jiraiya and returned back to their mountain home. Fukusaku walked up to the force field that held Naruto. He released the seal. He grabbed the unconscious boy and returned to the secret home of the Toads. The toads were ready to introduce Naruto to the power of the toads.


	11. Six Paths of Naruto

**Chapter 10 - Six Paths of Naruto**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

" "- Character talking to another character

Summary: What happened when Naruto and Jiraiya leave on their 3 year training mission? What if Naruto learned more then he could ever imagine about himself and becoming a great ninja? AN: I have not decided on any pairings and Naruto will become strong and intelligent during this trip.

**AN: I do not own Kishimoto's work or characters. I only own the rights to the original characters that I create. **

**AN: Please review the story. It helps me know that you are enjoying it. Also, please discuss any ideas of gaps, question, or comments in the current canon that should have been addressed during the training. **

**Recap: Ma grabbed the stasis field around Jiraiya and returned back to their mountain home. Pa walked up to the force field that held Naruto. He released the seal. He grabbed the unconscious boy and returned to the secret home of the Toads. The toads were ready to introduce Naruto to the power of the toads.**

Naruto emerged from his sleep to be in a home that was very unique, as it appeared to be hollowed out from a plant of some kind. He quickly got his bearing, but when he moved he felt sore. Overall, he felt better, but when he quickly stood up, he had to catch his balance.

"Your body is getting adjusted to having regrown your skin that peeled off your body during the Kyuubi four tail transformation." Fukasuku told the young Genin. "Here, drink this tea and eat these rolls that Ma made."

Naruto took the tea and sipped it slowly, and began to munch on the soft rolls. It was not ramen, but the rolls definitely had a unique texture and taste to it. However, it was not bad considering he could not identify any of the ingredients. He was sure that he would not want to ask what the toads traditionally ate, so he continued to remain in ignorant bliss.

"The tea has regenerative powers to help revitalize ya. You have been sleeping for a day, and I am sure you are famished. It is however very early in the morning, so we will eat a hearty lunch after we train this morning." Fukasaku explained. Naruto was visibly happy at the thought of training with Ero-sennin's teachers, but when he thought about his sensei; he felt fear grip him.

"How is Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked his amphibious host. "Is he okay? You said that he would be okay. I mean he will be up and running right?"

"He is fine, but unlike ya he does not have a super human healing factor. He will need weeks to deal with the trauma. However, he will be back to normal-super pervert and all." Fukasaku smirked while explaining to Naruto.

"I know Jiraiya told you that we would train you in the ways of the Toads, but now is not the time. First, we must refine your techniques, and refine your teamwork with us as your summons. You must consider using other toads other than Gamabunta, as his size does not allow him to be effective in all situations. Additionally, he is a bigger drain on your chakra reserves, which you want to conserve in the most efficient way.

Now, we watched you from our home, and know that you are learning techniques that mimic our Toad style taijutsu. How do ya feel about your taijutsu skills?" Fukasaku wanted to see how well Naruto was at evaluating himself. As he had taught Jiraiya, a great ninja is able to analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Most ninja play up their strengths and do not acknowledge their weaknesses.

"I would have to believe that my taijutsu skills are on par with most elite Jonin or ANBU. For one year, I have been working on taijutsu combining my two styles together. In addition, we have trained endlessly on speed and strength training, and at this point I could give Rock Lee a run for his money. However, knowing Lee and Gai-sensei, I bet they still outclass me.

To make my style effective, I have to continue to refine my use of the styles in combination. One style is more fluid, and the other style is more upright. The key for me will be to flow in and out of both styles, creating a new style of my own. Also, I know that Ero-sennin wanted me to learn to use weapons while fighting. I realize that the weapons that I wield will have to complement my taijutsu and attack style. This is why my arm bracers work so well with my Muy Thai style since it uses blocks and attacks using my elbows and forearms. The bladed bracer makes my blocks an offensive move against my opponents, and makes blows from my elbows a potentially fatal move for enemies. In addition, my boots contain blades that extend my reach and make my leg strikes even more deadly.

In addition, Jiraiya-sensei helped me develop my control over my three tail form and Kyuubi cloak, and we have combined this with my chakra shield. My human chakra shield helps reduce the impact of the Kyuubi's chakra and provides a secondary layer of protection. I would like to believe that the Kyuubi state has given me an absolute defense and offense on par with Gaara's Shukaku's sand shield. The biggest drawback is that I have to retain my calm to hold on to my human shield. Additionally, I have to continue to improve my chakra control to improve my efficiency with my chakra shield. I have to make every ounce of my chakra last longer so I can stay on the offensive in any battle with any opponent. If I do not retain my calm, and I lose my chakra shield; then the aftermath of my use is that I am out of commission for a long time." Naruto explained to his interim sensei.

"Since your training, has been focused on taijutsu and the use of the Kyuubi's chakra. I would like to start our time by refining your ninjutsu, weapons training, and working with the toads in battle situations." Fukasaku said as he thought contemplatively as he formulated his training program. "Follow me." Naruto walked out of the plant like home to witness an exotic world that looked so much different than any other place he had been. There were large mushroom like plants all around the community.

"Your training will heavily rely on fully accessing your chakra, so please make sure that your seals are off. To start, please summon about 100 clones. I want you to draw out the Kyuubi's three tail mode. We need to make sure that we are training with the maximum chakra reserves that we can use."

Naruto drew out the three tailed mode and his chakra shield. Afterwards, he created the 100 clones as requested, and Fukasaku could see that all the clones were in a similar three tail mode as the original Naruto. _I wonder if Naruto is dispersing three tails worth of power, or is he accessing more chakra than three tails? Since the additional chakra is dispersed in his clones; he may not be affected by it like when he by himself takes on more than three tails. _

"The first hundred clones please work today on your taijutsu training, as I do not want you to dull this skill." Fukasaku barked at mini army of Naruto's. "Please do all the katas of each style that was taught to you, and your combined style training."

"Now, the first that we will work on is your ninjutsu. I would like to test to see what types of elements are your strongest affinities." The toad sage gave Naruto the chakra paper. "Please push some chakra into the paper, and it will identify the elements that are your strongest to weakest."

When Naruto pushed the chakra into the paper, the paper immediately split in half. At that same moment one of the sides of the paper became extremely wet. However, the other side crumbled to dust.

"It is surprising to see you have three strong affinities, but with your host, nothing can be discounted. You can most easily learn Wind, Water, and Earth jutsu. This is not to say you cannot learn Lightning or Fire Jutsu, but you will have to work harder to master them. In addition, your large chakra reserves also provide you with the raw power to overcome the lack of affinity.

I want you to refine your attack and defensive jutsu for your affinities first since they will be the easiest. We must learn to draw out and harness the elemental nature of your chakra first. The first step to harnessing earth is to make an ant hill appear in the ground. The first step for water is to make the droplets rise from a cup. Finally, the first step for wind is to make a small cut in a leaf.

"Please make 300 clones, and they will be divided into groups of 100 to practice the first step in all the elemental exercises. They cannot stop till they master the first step." Fukasaku ordered his young apprentice to learn. Naruto did as ordered.

"Naruto, this technique puts a lot of strain on you mentally and physically. I would suggest you meditate to allow yourself the focus needed to achieve this feat.

In addition, have you ever considered building the power of your clones to withstand a drawn out fight with an enemy? If you could use a team of powerful clones, your original form can remain away from the battle in a safer area. Your clones could engage an enemy while you remain in a meditative state gathering information on an enemy and whittling down their numbers."

Naruto nodded as he began to see the wisdom of that strategy. When he normally fought enemies, his clones would disappear after a few hits. What if he could build a team of powerful clones with the Kyuubi's chakra? What if he could directly channel the Kyuubi's chakra into the clone? He could retain his three tail mode worth of chakra, but could he power up six clones with a tails worth of power in it? Instead of channeling all that power directly into him, what if he could refine the shadow clone technique to directly siphon a tail and put it into a clone? He would have to ask the Kyuubi, if this could be an agreeable proposition.

He sat in his meditative stance, and entered the lush field that Kyuubi now remained "imprisoned" in.

"Kyuubi-san, I have come to ask you a question. Would you allow me the ability to transfer a tail worth of power into a shadow clone? I would like to retain my three tail mode ability, so I was hoping we could transfer six tails worth of power into six clones. Each of my shadow clones could hold a tail worth of your power. We would benefit in a battle situation, if I could stay away from the front line of a battle. A clone with a tail of your awesome power would still have more chakra then all the Kages and Sannins' chakra reserves combined. I know that the reason that we have ever been defeated is not because of the chakra that I have at my command, but it is my lack of skill and technique in using all this power.

This proposal aims to address this weakness. I want to more effectively and fully utilize your power and protect us both doing it. This strategy that I am proposing would allow the clones to last longer in a battle, and they can perform high level ninjutsu on our enemies. As I grow more experienced, with your power and the proper training, my clones will be able to hold off Kage-level ninjas.

Also when I use a tail of your power, my body does not feel tired or overwhelmed by the corrosive effects of your chakra, unlike when I fight with more than three tails of power. We would stay alive much longer, and I would be whittling our opponent's numbers down without directly harming us." Naruto explained to the Lord of Demons.

"**My young kit, you are using incredible common sense, as I can appreciate your attempts to keep us both alive. I have often felt threatened by the fact that you put of us at risk without a regard for our longevity. However, if I am to grant you this request, then I would like you to assist me one more time.** "Kyuubi stated with some authority.

"What is it?" Naruto asked apprehensively. It is not easy to be completely at ease with the Lord of all demons.

"**I would like you to create a clone where I can transfer my consciousness." Kyuubi asked without hesitation. "Shadow clones work on the same premise of transferring consciousness back to the original user. In fact, to show you that I am not seeking to violate your trust. I would only ask that the clone henge into a fox without any power. I just want to feel my mind exploring the real world again. When you dissipate your clone, I will be returned to my prison."** Kyuubi hoped that Naruto would allow him the freedom to roam as wild animals desire to do.

"Agreed." Naruto bowed before the great lord of demons. Naruto learned that Kyuubi reacted more pleasantly when being acknowledged. During his previous discussions, Naruto learned that the Kyuubi's word was a bond that he did not like to break. It would be beneath the great lord of demons to have to lie before a small human boy.

In the real world, Fukasaku wondered why Naruto was smiling while meditating. He would later remember this day as the day one of the most powerful forces in history became fully harnessed by a single shinobi.

In a dojo beneath the Hidden Sound Village, Sasuke was battling several half formed curse seal test subjects. He was wielding a katana similar to the Kusanagi. He was pushing himself wondering how the dobe had gotten so powerful. His three tail mode was almost impossible to attack, as the tails worked indepedently from each other. It made it difficult for his Sharingan to attack, as each tail was extremely fast.

"Ku ku ku…what is bothering you Sasuke-kun? Are you troubled that your old teammate has gained power?" Orochimaru appeared in the dojo. Over a year ago, He had switched into a body before Sasuke arrived, so now he had the use of his arms. However, his ninjitsu skills were diminished. When Sarutobi-sensei cut off his soul's arms, he could no longer access his personal skill level. He could only use the chakra control and affinities of the body of his host. Prior to his arm's removal, he fully transferred his entire skill set into a new body. This created a huge limitation to a man who craved to dominate all the jutsu in the elemental nations. However, Uchiha Sasuke was the perfect prodigy. He had large chakra reserves and he had very few limits to the type of jutsu that he could petform. Orochimaru also knew that motivation to be the best meant his prodigy would continually work harder.

"Hmph...I just was caught off guard by the power, but I know that when I fully master my Level 2 that he will not be a match for me." He swung his katana on the last of the mutated humans. Sasuke never relished destroying the mutated level 2 creatures, as they were merely mindless shinobi experimented on by Orochimaru. There was no pleasure in destroying them.

"Well, it is time that we practice with your genjutsu skills. As I have explained to you in the past, the best way to slow something of that power is to mentally attack them. Uchiha Madara was supposedly able to control the tailed beast with his genjutsu, so we must unlock that power in you. With that power, you can attack the source of Naruto's power directly."

Sasuke nodded, and began practicing his genjutsu skill on another experiment of Orochimaru's ignoring the screams of agony. _Next time, I am going to drive you insane with madness, where your precious village will have to put you down like a rabid dog._ _You will experience the horror of all your worst memories replayed over and over again._

**AN: I want to state my goal is to mirror the power and strength that Pein displayed in his fight with Konoha and Naruto. To truly be considered the shinobi of Jiraiya's prophesy, Naruto and Pein should mirror each other in strength. **

**AN: I know other people may disagree with me over what a tail of power is worth, but I believe is that if Gaara's Shukaku could almost kill Gamabunta (during the fight, Bunta told Naruto that he could not take much more from the Shukaku) that a tail should be a unbelievable amount of power. Since the Shukaku did not show any signs of tiring when it was fully released, then a single tail is a lot of power by reasonable deduction. After Gaara woke up from Naruto's punch, Bunta returned home from being worn out from fighting the Shukaku.**

**In my opinion, each tail should contain unimaginable amounts of chakra. The problem with Naruto or Gaara has been for their bodies to physically use this power for a sustained time without passing out from exhaustion. **


	12. Jiraiya Returns and Enemies Plot

**A Boy and His Sensei**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

""- Character talking to another character

**AN: Thank you Senjuto for taking the time to help me improve my chapter with your corrections.**

**AN:My apologies for not updating for such a long time, but I have been swamped with work and life events. I am a business owner, and I go to law school at night. This rough economic period has put my new found company in a fight for survival. I have found time to write tonight, so I want to take my story a bit further. I do have great news. I am expecting a baby in November. I am going to be a dad. Wow! This is crazy.**

**AN: I know many people have asked me to get a Beta to assist. The only problem is that I so infrequently write that if I waited to publish a chapter that I would probably not be able to return to it for month. Please forgive my grammar mistakes or elementary writing styles. I am trying to clean it up the chapter that I publish repeatedly after posting it.  
**

**AN: I do not own Kishimoto's work or characters. I only own the rights to the original characters that I create. **

**AN: Please review the story. It helps me know that you are enjoying it. Also, please discuss any ideas of gaps in the current canon that should have been addressed during the training. **

**Summary:** What happened when Naruto and Jiraiya leave on their 3 year training mission? What if Naruto learned more then he could ever imagine about himself and becoming a great ninja? AN: I have not decided on any pairings and Naruto will become strong and intelligent during this trip.

**Previously: **"Well, it is time that we practice with your genjutsu skills. As I have explained to you in the past, the best way to slow something of that power is to mentally attack them. Madara Uchiha was supposedly able to control the tailed beast with his genjutsu, so we must unlock that power in you. With that power, you can attack the source of Naruto's power directly."

Sasuke nodded, and began practicing his genjutsu skill on another experiment of Orochimaaru's ignoring the screams of agony. _Next time, I am going to drive you insane with madness, where your precious village will have to put you down like a rabid dog._ _You will experience the horror of all your worst memories replayed over and over again._

_____________________________________________________________________________

Over the past few weeks, Naruto understood why Jiraiya was preparing him for the intense training that Ma and Pa were going to subject him to. Every morning, Ma and Pa would share the revitalizing tea and some strange stew. After this peaceful tea break and a quaint lunch and dinner, Pa would turn into a drill sergeant who would force Naruto to perfect every detail of his training. Every clone had to achieve training to the appropriately level before they were dispersed.

As he sat enjoying his morning tea, he He knew better than to find out what he was eating. _This stuff is different, but it's not half bad_. Naruto chewed quietly to himself.

"Hey brat, you have no love for your powerful sensei?" Jiraiya deadpanned as he gingerly walked into the room. Naruto upon hearing that goofy introduction knew exactly who it was, and he smiled one of the truest smiles that he had in his life.

"PERVYYYY SAGE!!!" Naruto got up and ran to Jiraiya giving him the biggest hug. "Whoaaa…Naruto..don't send me back to the doctor's office." Jiraiya croaked out while Naruto buried his head in his sensei's stomach crying his eyes out. Tears streamed down the young ninja's face as he poured out his appreciation to one of the few people who saw him as himself. Jiraiya saw Naruto as special and someone to be taught. This was so different then all those who saw him as a nuisance. Kakashi was a friend, but he did not see Naruto's potential. He refused to teach him during the Chuunin exams and left him with Ebisu. If Kami had not shown Naruto favor, he would have never met Jiraiya at that hot spring.

"Kid, it is good to see you." Jiraiya softly said as he could see the love that his new pupil showed him. For a man who had spent his entire life chasing women and partying, he truly wondered if he missed out by not trying to settle down and start a family. _Was all that Sake that I enjoyed all these years worth it? Did I give up too much for this bachelor lifestyle that I have lived all these years?_

"Little Jiraiya, it is good to see you up. You had us worried with fall that you took back there." Fukasaku said, and Ma toad hopped up on Jiraiya's neck to give him a heartfelt hug. "We have a lot of work to do with both of you, and we do not have a lot of time to do it."

"Man, cut a guy a little slack." Jiraiya whined. Naruto finally looked up, and smiled. He was definitely back. Fukasaku smiled briefly. He agreed that Jiraiya needed a few more days rest to get better. After he was better, he had a lot of work to do. "Your sage form still needs work." Fukasaku reminded Jiraiya.

"Naruto, I know you are happy to see Jiraiya, but you must prepare to train. If you want to survive the enemies that you will confront, then you cannot forsake your training." Fukasaku barked at the young Genin.

"Hai!" Naruto ran out to the field to train. He was excited because he was really making progress with the training these weeks with the Toad sages, and he was truly thrilled at how far he had come.

Naruto was now able to perform few jutsus for each of the elements. Fukasaku desired him to learn each elemental jutsu in an efficient, organized, and tactical manner. After Naruto could harness each element, he was instructed on particular jutsus. He would have 100 clones working for each of his elemental affinities.

First, he was taught to how to make earth and water clones. Since he was shifting to utilize the strategy of creating six strong shadow clones, he would want to use the elemental clones to provide the sheer numbers to overwhelm an opponent. Elemental clones were more resilient, and they used less chakra. However, they were limited since they could not use chakra for ninjutsu (since they did not have chakra coils). Additionally, these clones were limited as they could not transfer their experience to Naruto, and as such, they would not be as useful for Naruto for scouting or analyzing opponents.

Since the wind element did not have a clone equivalent, Fukasaku taught Naruto to use the wind to help lengthen his taijutsu strikes. It took a while, but he was able to lengthen his strikes. If an opponent jumped away from the physical strike, then Naruto was able to reach them with his wind blades. The wind blade increased the deadly efficiency of Naruto's taijutsu.

After working on these justsu, he was taught defensive jutsus to help him protect himself or others. He learned to make earth, wind, and water barriers. In fact, Fukasaku worked on Naruto learning to condense his elemental barriers to make them more difficult to pierce or widen the area to increase the area that the wall would protect. He could create a huge water wall, earth wall, and/or wind barriers. However, his wind barriers were effective in a dome like barrier shape (similar to the Kaiten used by Neji during the exams). However, person or items caught in the wind dome would be cut to shreds.

As promised, the Kyuubi was allowed to roam in the mountains as a simple clone henge into the shape of the fox. The Kyuubi would often lay in the field, and he watched Naruto train day after day. Though the Kyuubi would not admit it to many people, he was impressed at the potential of his host. He knew that the boy's father had defeated him with the seal, but this boy was truly become a power house in his own right. **"This kit could be interesting."** The Kyuubi mused to himself.

Today, Fukasaku was instructing Naruto on how to use his earth jutsus to break off pieces of rock from the earth. The rocks ranged in size from rocks the size of a fist to a boulder, and Naruto would use his wind abilities to hurtle them at targets. Fukasu wanted to diversify Naruto's arsenal with another mid-range jutsu, and this would give him another mid-range jutsu to complement his close range style. At this point, the chakra tails were his only other midrange attack. Fukasaku had Naruto use 100 shadow clones to work on this jutsu.

Fukasaku decided to teach Naruto an incredible powerful water based jutsu that would be another midrange attack. As Fukasaku explained, "Many water based jutsus require the use of large bodies of water to be performed. However, most people do not realize that the human body is composed of 60% water." He further explained, "Naruto, you must focus on learning how to draw water from any source, and we will refine this ability to literally drain the water from the body of his opponent. If you can refine his ability, then no onewill be able to withstand this vicious attack. " To help you refine this skill, your clones must focus on drawing water from nature. The goal of this training is to continually expand the range that you can draw water from."

The final group of clones were working on mastering the Rasengan. Naruto's speed and efficiency were definitely lacking, as he usually required a clone to control and form the Rasengan. To help improve this powerful jutsu, he had clones working on creating one Rasengan in one hand, as fast as he could. In addition, he had some clones working on creating a Rasengan in each hand. He had another group working on creating a larger more powerful version of the Rasengan. This was another jutsu that the Sharingan could not copy, and as such, he would have an advantage if he could refine the jutsu of the Fourth Hokage.

Fukasaku explained, "Naruto, save your six Kyuubi enhanced clones and your chakra tail based attacks for the A rank and S rank opponents. Your ability to wield three of the Kyuubi's tails will be so unique that you would catch many opponents off guard. We have to avoid you over relying on the Kyuubi's power unless absolutely necessary. This is why you must learn more skills to be a effective shinobi."

While Naruto's clones were working on the ninjutsu on the training field, in another training field; the real Naruto was working with Gamakichi to improve their coordination. Gamakichi was going through his toad growth spurt, and now he was as tall as Naruto. Gamabunta was teaching Gamakichi to use a broadsword, and Gamakichi could produce oil like his father. However, unlike Jiraiya who could produce a large burst of fire to ignite Bunta's oil, Naruto and Gamakichi worked on using paper tags to help ignite the oil and produce a flame like attack. Naruto had not yet learned how to use fire jutsu, but they could compensate by working together.

"Boss, you are really getting better. Pop is impressed. He thinks we could become a unique tandem. You keep the candy flowing, and I will not complain one bit" Gamakichi yelled. He was jumping across the entire length of the field to strike a practice target over a kilometer away by bringing his sword down on the target. Naruto smiled at the compliment, but he did not break stride. He was working on using his speed to charge another target on the field with his katana. He raced across the field at a speed that would have made Lee and Gai- sensei proud. He sliced his katana against the target's throat area. After slicing the target, he flipped across the target and thrust his sword to the lower spinal area of the target.

"Kichi, we have been working on our tandem style, and I know we have come pretty far. Maybe one day, we could give Pervy Sage and your dad a run for their money." Naruto winked and held his thumb up to his buddy.

Jiraiya and Gamabunta both sneezed while they were drinking some Sake and reminiscing. They knew someone was talking about them somewhere, and they had a feeling they knew who it was.

* * *

Kabuto was moving in a complex under the Sound Village, and it was in this compound that he kept his notes on the various experiments. He was analyzing the results of the latest batch of Curse Seal recipients who had died. Kabuto performed autopsies to help evaluate ways to improve the seal. Though he knew that the Curse Seal was a powerful tool, it was also full of inherent weaknesses; and this is why he never took the seal for himself.

However, one of the recipients who took the seal demonstrated something very unique. He came from the same clan as his teammate in the exam, who could absorb chakra. When this boy mutated to the level one of the curse seal, his ability to absorb chakra was mutated as well. The boy was able to absorb the body and abilities of his opponents. However, the poor boy's body became unstable and he died. While doing the autopsy, Kabuto found that the boy's body excreted a hormone that facilitated the absorption process. He would need to study this to see if he could refine this hormone. Maybe he could harvest this hormone just like they did with the Curse Seal from Juugo.

Lord Orochimaru could transfer bodies so this would not be a useful technique to him._ Maybe, Orochimaru-sama does not need this tool, but I will have to investigate this further. Who knows it may be useful later on?_

Kabuto filed the file in his private notes and sealed away the results so others would not stumble across this interesting tidbit of information.

**

* * *

**Itachi was sitting on a boulder looking out over the horizon. He knew that he would never return to his home. The truth died with the Third Hokage, and there would be no one who could exonerate him.

A raven sat at his feet, and it had a sealed a message meant for Jiraiya to read. Jiraiya would have to tell him what he knew about Sasuke. Jiraiya owed him that much considering how he kept Jiraiya informed of Akatsuki's movements. He knew that Orochimaru had convinced Sasuke to seek power with him, and he knew that if he did not help him that Orochimaru would take his brother. His foolish brother had accepted the cursed seal, and this would only deepen the onset of insanity that plagued the Uchiha clan.

"All I wanted to do was spare Sasuke, and now, I have lost him." Itachi muttered to himself.

Kisame approached the boulder. Kisame always wondered what went through his lethal partner's mind. He had no doubts that Itachi could take on any member of Akatsuki, but Itachi always kept back much of his abilities. Kisame respected Itachi and his ability to size up an opponent with seconds, but he never understood what kind of fear that Itachi had for Jiraiya. He remembered when they tried to grab the nine tails brat. He was sure that he and Itachi could have taken on the Sannin, but Itachi was not so sure. After they broke out of the Toad Mouth Bind Jutsu, they escaped due to Itachi's extreme chakra exhaustion. However, he could not shake the feeling that it did not make sense.

"Itachi, we have to meet the leader." Kisame barked to his partner.

"Kisame, we are not truly meeting the leader. You know this." Itachi casually explained.

"I know that he projects to our meeting room, but we need to get to the meeting place." Kisame failed to pick up on the subtle clue that Itachi was throwing to his partner, and Kisame turned to walk back to their meeting spot.

"Go my little friend, and get me my answers" Itachi waved the raven. The bird flew to the horizon.

Without another word, Itachi prepared to meet the other member of Akatsuki. He knew that the "leader" was just a puppet. He knew who truly ran the Akatsuki, but he never challenged the facade. He knew that Madara would reveal himself when the time was right. He knew that the true purpose of the tailed beasts was not yet revealed. He knew that he had to find out what the real purpose was in capturing the tailed beasts. For everything that he knew, it was the things that he did not know that worried him.

_How am I going to stop Madara?_ Itachi thought to himself as he followed his partner to the meeting location._  
_


	13. Akatsuki on the move verus Orochimaaru!

Ch. 12 Akatsuki vs. Orochimaaru Part 1

**A Boy and His Sensei**

**Bold**- Kyuubi/Demon talking

_Italics_ - Inner Monologues

""- Character talking to another character

**AN: Thank you Senjuto for taking the time to help me improve my chapter with your corrections.**

**AN:My apologies for not updating for such a long time, but I have been swamped with work and life events. I am a business owner, and I go to law school at night. This rough economic period has put my new found company in a fight for survival. I have found time to write tonight, so I want to take my story a bit further. I do have great news in that I am a father of a beautiful baby girl.**

**AN: I know many people have asked me to get a Beta to assist. The only problem is that I so infrequently write that if I waited to publish a chapter that I would probably not be able to return to it for month. Please forgive my grammar mistakes or elementary writing styles. I am trying to clean it up the chapter that I publish repeatedly after posting it.**

**AN: I do not own Kishimoto's work or characters. I only own the rights to the original characters that I create. **

**AN: Please review the story. It helps me know that you are enjoying it. Also, please discuss any ideas of gaps in the current canon that should have been addressed during the training. **

**Summary:** What happened when Naruto and Jiraiya leave on their 3 year training mission? What if Naruto learned more then he could ever imagine about himself and becoming a great ninja? AN: I have not decided on any pairings and Naruto will become strong and intelligent during this trip.

**Previously: **_How am I going to stop Madara?_ Itachi thought to himself as he followed his partner to the meeting location.

Itachi walked into a cave where the other members of Akatsuki were preparing to meet to bind another of the great tailed beast. The Sanbi had been captured and was being brought to be bound. In the room, Tobi, Pein, Konan, Zetsu, Itachi, Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, Deidara, and Sasori stood ready to do their part in the binding.

The members of the group stood on their respective positions. Each member concentrated and the giant demon statute drew its power from the chakra of each member of the Akatsuki for the binding. Each binding took a lot out the members, so it had to be done in a protected location with several seals and traps to prevent the process from being disturbed.

While the binding was going on, Itachi was mentally reviewing the situation that stood before him. The man who led to his exile was pretending to be this idiot "Tobi", but in reality, he was one of the five strongest ninjas of all time in his prime. Though he was a shell of his former glory, he retained his ultimate control of time and space with his "phasing" ability. It would be extremely difficult to attack a being who could not be struck by ninjutsu or taijutsu blows. When you add in the fact that his eyes were beyond the realm of genjutsu, he was a difficult opponent to defeat.

In addition, the true purpose of capturing the tailed beast has not been revealed. Pein was explaining a plan to destroy the power of other ninja villages to bring peace, but the methodology was not truly his to explain. He was merely a puppet of the Akatsuki "idiot", Tobi. Would the beasts be bound to new hosts? Could they control the beast? How do you control something that is a force of nature?

While Itachi was deep in contemplation, Tobi was reviewing his fellow Uchiha. _I think that Itachi is ready to move against me. His body betrays his comfort with our plans. He holds Kisame back subtly with his strategies. I must prepare to remove Itachi from this equation and bring Sasuke to embrace his destiny as the avenger of the Uchiha clan. _

Zetsu knew that Madara was plotting to reveal the truth, and he was willing to be the right hand man of the strongest shinobi of all time. The plant man was a master of espionage and information gathering for his allies. He was virtually undetectable as he could emerge and move freely through the earth. In fact, Zetsu was often observing Itachi and reporting the information to Madara. In fact, he had provided a subtle poison that only Zetsu could adminster through his plant abilities through the plants that Itachi and Kisame would rest near. Zetsu's abilities allowed him to graft his body to those plants and release the poison through the plants system. It would seep from the plant's trunk , and the poison was aimed to slowly speed up the illness that plagued Uchiha who had attained the Sharingan's ultimate form, Magenkyo. Over time, Itachi's eyes were rapidly losing his vision and his heart was being weakened. Madara believed he could defeat any opponent, but he knew that a shinobi as skilled as Itachi who also possessed the Sharingan could be a formidable foe. He knew that Itachi would have detected a traditional fast working poison, but this formula would allow Itachi to be useful to the Akatsuki's goals while not being a threat to his plans. In the end, Madara would have Itachi removed, when he no longer proved useful and retain those powerful eyes.

**Orochimaaru's Lair:**

In a lair under the Hidden Sound Village, a boy with shark like teeth squared off against Sasuke. Sasuke charged at the boy and screamed "Chidori" as his lightning blade struck the boy square in his face. However, unlike other traditional opponents, this boy simply absorbed the blow like a lake absorbs the impact of a boulder crashing into a lake. Suigetsu simply reformed and smirked at Sasuke. He knew that the Sasuke would have killed him a thousand times over, if it were not for his unique composition of his body. "Sasuke, you are truly a worthy ally, but what fuels your desire to be strong?"

"It is just the simple goal of avenging my clan." Sasuke explained a matter of factly. Sasuke leaped back and release his "Phoenix Style Fireball Jutsu" and tried to evaporate his opponent. Sasuke did not have anything against Suigetsu, but he could not hold back against opponents. It was the only way he could improve to take on a shinobi of Itachi's caliber.

Suigetsu knew that this could be bad, so he simply merged into the ground to avoid a direct impact. He reemerged behind Sasuke and launched out with his blade to impale the Uchiha where he stood. Sasuke reacted quickly and jumped away from the decapitating blow that Sugeitsu was planning to deliver.

Sasuke's Sharingan was ablaze, and he was able to use it to be reacting quick enough to avoid the blow. At that point, Sasuke knew that Sugeitsu's weakness would be to fire based attacks. He launched another fireball at Suigetsu who was only able to partially dodge it. The fire evaporated a large part of Suigetsu's water like body and left him in a lot of pain. Sasuke seizing the advantage used the momentary charring to launch a "Great Fireball" jutsu that Suigetsu was able to only avoid by putting up a water wall to help absorb the blow. However, with the jutsu and the fire attack that he was not able to avoid, he was not in good shape. He did not see Sasuke use the momentary blind spot that his water wall defense had caused to then electrify his entire body and send out a powerful lighting strike that conduct through the water. Sasuke knew that Suigetsu's skill was to use his water to avoid direct strikes. However, since electricity conducted through water, it would still be able to cause him numbness. Without his bearing on his surrounding, he felt like his whole body was on fire. He could feel that his water based body was evaporating at such a fast rate that he would not survive. He began screaming , and writhing in pain unaware that his body was not evaporating. He was caught in a genjutsu that magnified his worst fear.

At that moment, the Snake Sannin, who was watching the spar, emerged from the ground clapping to his two pupils. "Well done Sasuke! Kabuto, help our poor aquatic friend recover."

Orochimaaru was not sure about Sasuke's loyalties, but he was confident that unlike Itachi who was able to repel his attempt to take over his mind. He had two different advantages that he did not have then, as Sasuke's anger made him more vulnerable to a mental invasion, and Sasuke was infected with the Curse seal. The Curse seal exerted a mental link between the person with the seal and Orochimaaru, which he could use to his advantage.

"Ku,ku,ku…Sasukekun, you have done well, but we have a long way to progress before you are ready to face your brother." Orochimaaru snidely reminded his prized pupil. As they turned back, they could see Kabuto was helping lower Suigetsu into a water based tub to help reconstitute his body and recooperate.

"I know Orochimaaru that there is more to do, but my limitation is with you as a teacher." Sasuke calmly mocked the Snake Sannin earning a look of anger from Kabuto.

"Sasuke, show Lord Orochimaaru more respect!" the second in command barked at Sasuke. Sasuke only sneered with contempt filled look.

**In the Akatsuki's lair:**

As the binding of the Sanbi was nearing completion, "What is the status report, Hidan?" Pain asked.

" We are having trouble finding the Gobi, as he has been wandering the elemental nations." Hidan responded nervously knowing that this would agitate Pain.

"We must capture the lower tailed beast and use their power to help us hold the Kyubi's power." Pain announced. "Redouble your efforts, as we are running out of time, Hidan? Where are we with the Shukaku, Hachibi, and Neko?"

"I am working with my man to bring the Shukaku to us. He has slowly been laying out our entrance and exit route, as invading the Village Hidden in the Sand is not a easy task." Sasori of the Red Sand succinctly explained.

"The Hachibi and Neko are two elite Jounin for the Village Hidden in the Clouds. With the Hachibi's brother the Raikage; we will need to use a different strategy to draw them out." explained Kakuzu.

"Well, I do have one good piece of news. I have discovered the whereabouts of our former teammate, Orochimaru's hideout. I want a team sent to retrieve our ring. Orochimaru is a wild card that I want eliminated. Hidan and Kakuzu, please go and retrieve the ring." Pain ordered.

"I wanted to get Orochimaru. I hate to keep him waiting for the punishment of abandoning me in that trap." Sasori hissed.

"Sasori, I know that you are angry, but as you are closer to succeeding in getting us the Shukaku; I cannot risk that your focus be diverted. Also, since Hidan and Kakuzu are not in a position to get the Gobi; I would rather their talents be diverted to collecting our ring. We will need the ring for the final binding of the beast." Pain explained to Sasori.

The meeting was dismissed and the pairs left to their respective missions.

Orochimaaru's Lair:

Hidan and Kakuzu got the instructions and were dispatched to find Orochimaru. Itachi contemplated the Pain and the power that this powerful ninja possessed. _He wields the Rinnengan, and is as strong as the Sage of Six Paths. How do you defeat such a powerful ninja?___

The next day, Hidan and Kakuzu find the secret lair of Orochimaru. As they were two of the most powerful members of Akatsuki, they rarely relied on stealth, and they had their immortality to overwhelm their opponents.

Kakuzu performed hand signals quickly, and he was able to perform a earth jutsu and he shouted "Earth's One Million Spear", and the ground surrounding the lair was impaled with several sone spikes. In the bushes, Sound Chunnin who were positioned to guard the lair, were destroyed in minutes. A few moments passed, but the wall of his underground lair was cracked by a large, piercing rock; wall crumbled around the spike.

"This is going to be a great bounty. Don't you think Hidan?" Kakuzu casually announced as they walked up to devastation.

"Blood will be spilled you, heathen in the name of Jashin. Who cares for money, when you can serve the noble Jashin?" Hidan barked at his teammate. Their pairing was because they could work together, and also Kakuzu was the only person who could definitely survive the random rages of the blood thirsty Jashin follower.

Upon cue, hundreds of half deformed experiments of the cursed sealed were released upon the Akatsuki members. Hopefully, this will slow them down. _I always hated that Jashin lunatic and Kakuzu as they are basically immortal._ Orochimaaru was thinking as he was preparing to evacuate if need be. This lab was difficult to leave as he many experiments that were showing signs of being fruitful.

With his large scythe, Hidan was making short work of the experiments. Orochimaaru was careful to not waste resources, and he sent out the weakest of the experiments first in a attempt to wear these S-class ninja down.

Blood was raining across the half crazed smile of Hidan from the bodies of the experiments who stood no chance. The blood drenched him, and he was lost in a euphoric joy of serving his lord, Jashin.

Kakuzu was less enthusiastic, as he was only concerned with killing Orochimaaru, Kabuto, and Sasuke; as they were valuable shinobi in the Bingo Book. _Why spend the time, if it was not profitable? _He launched a boulder into group of experiments emerging from the lair, as he was screaming curses at Orochimaaru for delaying the inevitable.

"Kabuto, prepare the journals, the field notes on the experiments, and inform Sasuke to be ready to leave." Kabuto nodded and he quickly left to find the heir of the Uchiha clan.

Sasuke who heard the devastation was startled from his room. _This is it. I can finally test my mettle against true opponents. No one willing challenges Orochimaaru with such a bold entrance. _Sasuke took this moment to charge to sound of the noise.

"Wait up Sasuke! Do not go that way, as you may not be ready!"Kabuto yelled to a bolting Sasuke.

_Damn! This punk is going to force us to present ourselves to Hidan and Kakuzu. Those are both enemies that could defeat Lord Orochimaaru. I have to alert my lord to see if he wants to protect his precious Sasuke and those special eyes._ Kabuto rushed back to tell his lord.


End file.
